This advice has been haunting me since I first read it — because it’s genius. Mike Crittenden says there are 2 things he has come to believe about writing: 1. The average person should write 5x more things than they do. 2. The average written thing should be 5x shorter than it is. I remind myself of this every time I’m about to put my pen down or stop typing. — CD

The MarineTraffic website blows my mind. It’s a live world map that shows thousands of ships around the world — from pleasure crafts and fishing vessels to container ships. Clicking on an icon reveals a photo of the ship and information about it. (Thanks to Doc Searls, who told me about the site.) — MF

Andreas Antonopoulos’ full-time job is explaining Bitcoin to people who don’t know anything about it. If you watch his two-hour video, “Bitcoin Explained in the Bitcoin Basics Workshop,” you’ll know more about how Bitcoin works than 99.9% of the rest of the people on the planet. — MF

Here is a 6 minute read of Japanese philosophies that’ll help you spend money consciously. These were all new to me. Currently practicing Chisoku — being content with what I already have. All of them are perspective-shifting. — CD

Sending a hand-written letter by post is a sure way to stand out. Part of that signal is the postal stamps, and in recognition of this role, the US Postal Service issues trendy artsy stamps for a stylish accent. Right now you can get Espresso stamps (weird), Droids stamps (collectibles), Hip Hop DJ stamps (edgy), Western wear stamps (vintage!), and Otters in Snow stamps (soooo cute), all ordered online, sent to you by mail, of course. These are Forever stamps that dont need extra postage when the rates change. — KK

Set Pose is an online drawing mannequin that you can adjust and use as a 3D model reference. There are presets like running, sitting, playing sports and combat poses that you can select, and even some props like a sword, bike, and chair. This is perfect for me because I always have trouble drawing dynamic poses. — CD

5 stars for the new movie DUNE. It’s the most exquisite world building (worlding) I’ve seen since Star Wars. Crisp, inventive, plausible and coherent. The soundtrack and cinematic style are appropriate to the world. The story is forceful and mythical. I want more. After you watched it once, but before you watch it again, this long Max Read annotation will fill you in on the Dune book/movie references. I watched it streamed on HBO, but it would be worth seeing it in a theater. — KK

This power strip from Powlight was just what I needed for my workbench. It has 12 AC outlets with surge protection arranged in two rows and 4 USB charging ports. The cord is 8-feet long. — MF

I bought this small Apple Watch charger for my travel kit. It has a USB-C and USB-A plug so I can plug it into my laptop or a wall charger. — MF

In this short snippet from a longer interview, Esther Perel explains “Why your Partner Criticizes You.” She says behind every criticism is a wish. This does not excuse being critical toward your partner, but keeping this in mind helps me focus on what it is I’m really requesting of my partner and what he might be asking of me. Worth the 4-minute listen. — CD

A small change in my workflow that has done wonders is writing out my to-do list at night instead of in the morning when I sit down to work. I adopted this new practice after reading 11 Artists Share the Bedtime Rituals That Keep Them Creative. At least two of the artists said they plan out their goals for their next day. I find that by doing this, my mind wanders less and I fall asleep faster. — CD

Mixing a specific color by hand — I want to make this particular shade of green starting from primary colors — is a super skill that artists acquire and is much harder than it looks. I watched many YouTube tutorials to learn how to do this with paints and this one by Draw Mix Paint was the best method for me. It’s still more art than science. — KK

On this modest website, Arquitectura Libre, one photographer documents the outlandish homes that uninhibited new wealth enables in developing countries. So far he has cataloged creative buildings in only a few countries, but I’ve seen these all around the world, particularly China, so I hope he keeps going. Normal homes are so boring! — KK

Get three-day weather forecasts for any city by entering ​​http://wttr.in/city in your browser’s URL bar (e.g. http://wttr.in/boston or http://wttr.in/portland_maine). The page loads fast because there are no ads or graphics. — MF

When I feel uninspired, I like to re-read this Declaration of Enchantment, written by Depth Psychologist Craig Chalquist. There are 15 articles — all outlining the importance of nurturing our imagination. Reading this invigorates my curiosity and infuses me with awe. Below is an excerpt from the Preamble. — CD

We can live a few weeks without food, a few days without water, and a few hours without shelter in an inhospitable clime, but we cannot live for even a moment without some movement of imagination in mind and body. To restrict its enlivening flow is to cripple the wellsprings of health, vitality, and sanity. Enchantment is a self-evident basic right. An assault on enchantment is an assault on the human spirit.

I have a smooth-edge can opener and I like it much more than an old-fashioned can opener. My wife complains when she uses it to open a can of tuna, though, because the diameter of the cut lid is too large to squeeze the water out of the can. So I bought this simple tuna strainer. It’s a metal cup with holes in it. Press down on the handles and you can squeeze as much liquid as you want from the can. — MF

Crypto is weird, perplexing, silly, revolutionary, overhyped, underhyped, a mania, thrilling, accelerating, and awash in huge oceans of money that make it very difficult to discern what is real and sustainable. I am reading The Generalist, a free website of long “briefs” written by one analyst, to parse what is happening, I still have a zillion questions about crypto, but I have gotten more clarity from here than anywhere else on this confounding subject. — KK

Claudia (CD here) is too modest to recommend this herself, but she puts out a small poetry zine printed on paper that I enjoy. Phantom Kangaroo is 26 pages of illustrated “esoteric” poetry — celebrating the mystical, paranormal, and the ecstatic — contributed by a network of poets she has cultivated the past decade. Current issue (#25) is $13. — KK

This nearly endless Reddit list of useful websites you probably don’t know about is full of gems. Here are a few I discovered:

• RSOE-EDIS is a live world map of emergencies. Icons represent fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, plane crashes, biological endemics, public safety incidents, animal attacks, and more.

• Read Something Great is a curated database of “timeless” articles.

• Flick Metrix is a list of the “top rated movies on Netflix, created by combing ratings from across the web.”

• myNoise has links to a wide variety of tunable white noise generators, ambient sounds, tinnitus reducers, and other interesting audio effects. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to a soothing soundscape called Anamnesis.

• Just the Recipe strips out everything from an online recipe besides the ingredients and instructions.

— MF

Library of Congress, the largest library in the world offers free research assistance by experts. I finally had an excuse to use their service and was blown away by how helpful they were. I had been reading History of the Conquest of Mexico written in 1890, and could not find any information for one of the cited sources which was written 300 years prior, so I submitted a request and — in less than 24 hours — I received a response from the Hispanic Division Reference Librarian who linked me to a digitized copy of the manuscript, and 5 other links to codices of Pre-Hispanic History that I would have never discovered otherwise. It’s such an invaluable resource. — CD