This collection of AI-related science-fiction short stories by Richard Ngo reminds me of the classic anthologies I read growing up during the golden age of science fiction. They are hard sci-fi, with technically plausible scenarios, played out many levels deep in very consistent worlds, explored by a very fertile imagination. I found more insights per page in Ngo’s The Gentle Romance than in any other book I’ve read for a long while. — KK

Google’s Career Dreamer tool has been around for a bit, but it’s recently been updated with more AI support and feels worth returning to if you’re in a career‑questioning season. It asks for your past roles, skills, and interests, and then reflects back possible career paths, related titles, and a “career identity statement” you can lift language from for your resume or LinkedIn. I like using it as a way to see how my existing experience could stretch into adjacent roles I hadn’t named yet. If you land on a path that involves freelancing or consulting, this hourly rate calculator is a good tool for discovering what people in similar roles are actually charging. — CD

My daughter introduced me to Skull, a fun, fast-paced tabletop bluffing game for 3-6 people. Each player gets three rose cards and one skull card. Players take turns laying cards face down until one player announces they can turn over a specified number of flower cards from their own and the other players’ cards. Bidding continues until the others pass. If the high bidder turns over a skull, they lose the round; otherwise, they win. It takes about two minutes to learn, but the bluffing gets deviously deep. The coaster-like cardboard pieces feel great in your hands, and the artwork is beautiful. — MF

I like this fun list of what different places call “our Mona Lisa.” It’s not just museums or galleries. It includes single objects treated like sacred centerpieces by retail brands, jewelers, and more. I love the idea that any household can have its own Mona Lisa—something everything else seems to orbit around. — CD

Like many people I keep my phone ringer on vibrate, but I don’t usually carry my phone on me – I may leave it on a desk – so I often miss calls. I’ve greatly reduced missed calls by setting the phone to flash its flashlight and flash its screen while it vibrates. That flashing light is enough to notice from a distance. It is easy to program on the iPhone. Go Settings > Accessibility > Audio Visual > Flash for Alerts. For Android: Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Screen Text > Flash Notifications. — KK

In 1930, pioneering archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie published Decorative Patterns of the Ancient World, cataloging over 3,000 ornamental motifs — spirals, animals, rosettes, braids, crosses, and more — drawn from ancient civilizations across Europe and the Near East up to about 1000 AD. The entire book is free to browse and download on the Internet Archive, making it an incredible reference for artists, designers, crafters, and anyone looking for authentic, copyright‑free historical patterns to use in their work. The simple black‑and‑white line drawings make the motifs easy to trace, digitize, or adapt. Used copies of an out-of-print Dover paperback are also available. — MF

On a recent flight from LA to Portland, I used Flighty on my iPhone and was impressed by how much it knew about my trip. It let me know we’d be landing 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and even on the plane’s free texting-only Wi-Fi, it kept updating my flight status and showed me where my plane was on a map. You can share your trip with family so they get automatic landing alerts. The app is beautifully designed, and the “Where’s My Plane?” feature tracks your inbound aircraft up to 25 hours early, so you can see trouble coming. It also warns you about tight connections and tracks your lifetime flying stats on a nice passport-style map. Free for basics; Pro ($59/year or $299 lifetime) adds push alerts, weather radar, and calendar sync. iOS/Mac/Apple Watch only. — MF

I am so grateful when someone who is truly adept in their field shares their learnings, and Patricia Mou’s essay is a decade’s worth of wisdom in community building and holding space. My own personal journey with community has been about repairing what went wrong in the church structures I grew up in, so I feel very lucky now to be a facilitator and spaceholder within a few small webs of community, both online and in person. This essay reaffirms that, when it’s done well, community can be both life-changing and world-changing. The learnings that resonate most for me are: You will become everyone’s mother and father whether you want to or not. / You cannot ask for transcendence from a nervous system that hasn’t yet landed. / Light structure is what makes deep emergence possible. / What your community doesn’t talk about shapes it as much as what it does. — CD

A really great TikTok and Instagram follow is Keep the Meter Running. A guy waves down a taxi in New York City, jumps in and says “take me to your favorite place and keep the meter running.” The cabbie is then interviewed on their way to their favorite place, usually a very local ethnic restaurant. Without fail, each cabbie turns out to have a remarkable life story, summoned forth by the sensitive probing of the back seat passenger, comedian Kareem Rahma. This is the real America! A longer previous version of this routine ran on TV a few years ago, but at only a few minutes long, this show is brilliant. — KK

The markings on our Pyrex 2-cup measuring cup wore off after years of use, so I replaced it with the OXO Good Grips Angled Measuring Cup, made of non-BPA plastic. The clever part is the slanted surface inside the cup with measurement lines you can read by looking straight down — no more crouching to check at eye level. It’s lightweight and has a soft non-slip handle. Also available in 1-cup and 4-cup sizes. — MF

In Every Language is a Wikipedia search engine that lets you see how different regions of the world depict the same thing. It’s very cool to search a word and notice the subtle ways different cultures and collective psyches encode the same idea differently across languages. — CD

Since my phone is now my camera, I needed an easy way to attach it to a tripod. The solution is this metal adapter that holds the phone with a circle of magnets. The Mosenvka Portable Phone Grip ($29) then screws into the tripod head. But once I had it, I started using this same rig to hold my phone on my desk for FaceTime and video sessions, at the perfect angle. Its base also has a second heavy-duty magnet so the whole thing can stick anywhere there is metal, useful for filming. The holder rotates in any direction at any angle with just the right balance of ease and stiffness, to keep the phone rock steady. The whole thing is machined metal instead of plastic, so it is very rigid and stable. If your phone supports it, a magnetic ring is by far the best quick-release hold system. — KK

I bought a 2-pack of these battery-powered MCGOR motion-sensor lights to use as kitchen counter lighting. They snap magnetically onto adhesive metal plates you stick under your cabinets. They turn on automatically when you get near; step away, and they shut off after 20 seconds. Five brightness levels let you dial in exactly the right amount of light. They are USB-C rechargeable, and one charge lasts days. — MF

This week I came across two book-finding tools worth sharing. NPR’s Books We Love is an interactive guide that lets you filter more than 4,000 staff and critic picks first by year and then by genre and other tags, like length or mood. If you prefer something not on a bestseller list, you can also try Whichbook, a search engine that lets you find books by emotion or by character, or click on a world map to find books set in specific countries. — CD

The tiniest portable board game I know about is Iota ($30 used). It fits into a small container the size of an AirPods case, and so can be slipped into any day bag, purse or pocket. It’s perfect for travels. To play you keep arranging its tiny little cards on a table into nesting sets, sort of like dominos, but with more dimensions. The game rewards pattern matching. Even small kids can play, and it is challenging enough for adults. Also no language is needed – another plus for travel. — KK

When a company stonewalls you on a refund or dispute, head over to the Elliott Report’s Company Contacts database. Journalist Christopher Elliott has compiled direct phone numbers and email addresses for customer service executives at hundreds of companies — airlines, hotels, car rentals, banks, cable providers, and more. Skip the front-line customer service maze and go straight to someone with actual authority. The site also rates each company’s responsiveness to consumers. Free to use, no signup required. — MF

Still Here is a visualization tool for mapping your time and shared space with a loved one (animal or human) after they have passed. It was created by someone grieving the death of his dogs, and it feels very personal and tender. My fur baby is 7 years old now, and he has taught me so much about how grief and love are two sides of the same coin, so I am often thinking about his death. This feels like a kind of exposure therapy for my heart. — CD

A podcast I am enjoying is Articles of Interest, which is a spinoff of the legendary 99% Invisible podcast. It has the same nerdy fascination with things we tend to take for granted. In this case, clothing. It dives deep into the origins, and meaning of common articles of clothing such as blue jeans, school uniforms, outdoor wear, even pockets, zippers, and clerical collars. Each episode is a delicious rabbit hole. It’s a blast. There’s a very satisfying archive of back episodes. — KK

The free online game Color revealed how terrible I am at colors. It shows you a color for a few seconds, then asks you to recreate it from memory using sliding color and shade pickers. It sounds easy — it's not. I swore I nailed that shade of green, only to see my guess was way off. Play solo or challenge friends in multiplayer mode. — MF

There are two types of list articles I will always click on: best book cover roundups and bookshelf “shelfies.” This Zillow list of 12 home library ideas scratches my book‑voyeur itch, and now I have names for all the little libraries scattered around my house, most of which fall into the “strategic library” category, but the dream is still a library in every room. — CD