On my browser I keep bookmarked the Free Stuff page on Craig’s List, set to my locale (Location > For Sale > Free). I look there first when I need something. Almost everything will pass through sooner or later — from vintage bath tubs to cardboard moving boxes to baltic plywood. Yours for the hauling. It’s best if you can give it a few weeks or more to find what you want. — KK

I completed my third escape room this week and it is now my favorite group entertainment. Better than a concert, or going bowling. You enter a series of elaborately decorated rooms that are packed with puzzles that your group needs to collectively solve before going further. Collaboration is more important than genius. I find it tons of exhilarating fun. Most rooms take an hour to an hour-and-half. EscapeRoom is a directory of 6,000 escape rooms around the world, with summaries and prices, and where to find one near you. I am biased, but Palace Games in San Francisco are rated among the top 3 best escape rooms in the world, and are worth a trek to play them. — KK

I bought a Lihit Lab pencil and pen cases a couple of years ago and my daughters, who both like to sketch, were envious. I bought them each one of their own. It neatly stores up to 14 pens and has additional mesh pockets for erasers, sharpeners, and other small items. — MF

I’m a big fan of Clearer Thinking and have recommended several of their tests and newsletter before, and Spencer Greenberg, the social scientist behind Clearer Thinking also has a weekly newsletter that I click on as soon as it hits. Each week, he sends out “One Helpful Idea” and it’s short and sweet and it makes me feel smart. This week’s helpful idea was:

Many have made the argument that trying not to think about something makes us think about it more. As proof, they say: “Try not to think about a white bear. Gotcha!” But the way to not think of a white bear is not to “not think about a white bear” — it’s to think about a red plum.

You can view all the past issues and subscribe here. — CD

It took me way too long to discover how to quickly apply labels in Gmail. I used to apply custom labels to emails by using the drop-down menu — usually one by one. Then I figured out that if you have your labels set to show in the left panel, you can drag and drop messages into them, or vice versa — I drag the labels into my emails as I go through my inbox. Here’s a how-to on using drag and drop in Gmail. — CD

If you’re facing a tough decision and can’t make up your mind, try some of the 10 pieces of advice from this 2007 New Scientist article. One tip I found especially interesting: “researchers found that sad people took time to consider the various alternatives on offer, and ended up making the best choices.” My takeaway from that is to avoid making a major decision when I’m elated. — MF

The essays of Paul Graham are masterpieces of clear thinking. He writes about the process of making things, from a small idea, to a large company. Known as the co-founder of YCombinator, a high-tech incubator, his advice is eagerly sought by entrepreneurs, but his advice in these essays, posted on his ancient and free blog, is uncommonly useful to individuals who like to make things and make things happen. I learn a tremendous lot from each short essay. — KK

I just discovered Atlas Obscura has a Gastro Obscura map where you can find unusual restaurants or food museums all over the world. Anyone can contribute an entry — the requirements being that it is an awe-inspiring place or that it preserves lesser known culinary traditions or amazing architecture or decor. Way more interesting that Yelp! — CD

I don’t have a dog, but if I did I would be trying to get it to talk. At They Can Talk there’s a bunch of researchers training dogs to use cheap electronic devices to “say” words. Some dog-owners claim to be able to train their dogs to chain together a string of spoken words into something like a sentence. There’s a whole community of folks trying it, and recordable buttons sold on Amazon, and a good book on it, How Stella Learned to Talk. — KK

Here are a few of my favorites from this GitHub repository of Dwmkerr’s Hacker Laws and Principles:

• Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

• Amara’s Law: We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate in the long run

• Putt’s Law: Technology is dominated by two types of people, those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand.

— MF

I didn’t know about the tree seeds that flew around the Moon in 1971 and were planted upon return until I read this article in The Atlantic: We Almost Forgot About the Moon Trees. All the of the locations of these Moon Trees are kept here and up-to-date, including the ones no longer alive. Visiting as many of these trees as possible is now on my travel bucket list. — CD

Isaac Asimov’s 768-page Understanding Physics clearly explains the principles of motion, sound, heat, light, magnetism, and electricity in a historical context. It gave me a better understanding of physics than four years of mechanical engineering school, and was actually fun to read. — MF

Here is a very simple and effective three-second brain exercise for finding joy — recognize “thin slices of joy” throughout the day.

“Notice the joyful moments in your day, however small, however fleeting. Notice how good it feels to have that first sip of your drink. Or how tasty that first bite of food is. The pleasurable feeling of your skin in warm water when you wash your hands or take a shower. The moment of delight and comfort when you see your friend. These thin slices of joy only last a few seconds but they add up! The more you notice joy, the more you will experience joy in your life.”

That’s advice by an ex-Google engineer who wrote the book Joy on Demand. He shares more short and simple “joy” exercises here. — CD

When I travel internationally, some of the websites I use for work and entertainment block connections outside the United States. For the last year, I’ve been using ProtonVPN, which is based in Switzerland and has strict privacy policies (it doesn’t keep logs of the websites you visit). I use ProtonVPN to route my internet service through one of Proton’s U.S. hosts, so all the websites I visit think I’m in Los Angeles no matter where I happen to be. They offer a free version, but I pay $100 a year for higher speed and additional options. — MF

Throughout his career Dan Pink has been a master of distilling actionable advice about all parts of life. He is at peak wisdom in this series of videos that encapsulate an entire book’s-worth of advice into 3 minutes or less. Plus one dad-joke. He calls them Pinkcasts. They are totally worth your 3 minutes. — KK

The Mental Health Update is one of my favorite weekly newsletters in my inbox. There’s always a tool or article that widens my perspective. The most recent issue turned me on to Orai, an AI-powered app to help you improve your public speaking skills. Each issue has actionable strategies to improve your mental health. The newsletter was created by Jordan Brown, a social worker who started blogging because he couldn’t find the kind of mental health content online that he wanted to read. I’m always surprised by his articles and what he covers, so I am grateful. — CD

The Electjet Apollo Ultra USB portable charger is about the same size as my iPhone 12 Mini and twice as thick. It’s 10,000 mAh is pretty typical of power banks of its size. What sets it apart is how insanely fast it recharges. When I plug in the included AC charger, it goes from 0 to 100% charge in less than 25 minutes. (Other chargers I’ve had take 5 hours or more). It’s $139 on Indiegogo. — MF

I’ve been watching a lot of new streaming science fiction recently. My favorite shows, ranked in order of my enjoyment. — KK

• Dune (HBO) — Part 1. Perfect in all dimensions. Best world-building since Star Wars.

• The Expanse (Amazon) — Six seasons of an epic saga, with well-done characters and worlds.

• For All Mankind (Apple+) — Super fantastic counterfactual history of what if the Russians won the race to the Moon.

• Westworld (HBO) — Excellent cautionary tale of our relations with human-like robots. Already a classic.

• Ascension (Amazon) — Plenty of unexpected plot twists in story of 100-year ship to the stars.

• Silent Sea (Netflix) — Korean drama on Moon base.

• Station Eleven (HBO) — What if mostly actors survive a dystopia? Odd, perplexing, slow, but in a good way.

• Book of Boba Fett (Disney+) — Continuation of the Mandalorian space western, with shoot outs.

• Altered Carbon (Netflix) — Unlikely scenario, but rich, fun exploration of downloading personalities.

• Wandavision (Disney+) — Part of the Marvel universe. Amusing premise and very creative meta levels and format.

• Foundation (Apple+) — Based on classic book. Liked the beginning but I couldn’t finish it because it became too implausible.

Send your future self a letter. Might be a prediction, a goal, or a letter about something that happened today you dont want to forget. For 20 years Future Me has been forwarding letters into the future for free. You’ll most likely forget you wrote one and getting a note years from now will be a wonderful surprise. Thank you, today you. — KK

Just a fun, single purpose website. Click to relax and listen to ethereal sound of water and music. Zone out on the ripples. It is definitely relaxing. — CD