I’ve sunk into a comfy corner reading books about the age of discovery. A favorite is Over the Edge of the World, about Magellan’s first circumnavigation of the planet. The book is exceptionally good, and the story even better. Expeditions in those days were like today’s startups, with big visions and low likelihood of profit. Everything was falling apart the entire time. It’s not a tale of heroics, but of dire hardship, murder, mutiny, vast ignorance, and the slow awareness of the true scope of the this world. 260 sailors set off; 18 returned; but the world was literally never the same again. Highly recommended. — KK

Mvsep is a free web-based service that separates any song’s vocals and instruments. It’s useful for singers and musicians, but it also provides a new way to appreciate your favorite songs. I tried it with The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” using the “Ultimate Vocal Remover HQ” mode and was impressed by how well it worked. — MF

I am mesmerized by the short videos of Zach King. Are they real? Are they magic tricks? Or are they special CGI effects? Who cares? They are awesome. King’s visual tricks are witty, clever, and uplifting. I think of them as cinemagic. They have become a whole new creative genre, as King forwards and feature shorts inspired by his style but made by others. They travel well on TikTok so he has legions of followers. — KK

I never had any success searching Reddit directly, so I use Google and append all my queries with site:reddit.com. Redditle.com is exactly that — only a simpler, more direct way to search Reddit. You can even search within a specific subreddit. This would work well with Mark’s previous recommendation on Finding the best products online. — CD

Pirates invented early forms of democracy and organizations that were far more “modern” in shape than other work environments in the past. But what if there was a Gentleman Pirate who gave his pirates diversity training, casual Fridays, safe places, suggestion boxes, and encouraged them to express their artistic natures with art projects? That’s the parody of a very funny HBO comedy series “Our Flag Means Death.” The farcical absurdity is just background for a midlife crisis and workplace drama that is witty, heartfelt, refreshing, and touching. I binged all ten episodes in two sittings. — KK

Backofyourhand.com is a 5 question game that uses OpenStreetMap data to test how well you know your local area. I’ve lived in San Jose, CA for almost 4 years now and still don’t know the lay of the land (I scored a 15%). I scored 87% in my hometown of Sacramento. — CD

I recently returned from a long trip to Portugal and I used these tiny sealable plastic bags to store and organize my supplements and prescription medications. I saved them so I can use them the next time I travel. — MF

My new favorite hat to wear hiking is this Parapack P-CAP — an adjustable, foldable hat that is so breathable and lightweight it feels like I’m wearing nothing on my head. I love that it looks better than my other sun hats, and is less bulky. I just keep this in my purse now, because it’s so small. You can also fold it and use it as a pouch. — CD

Glue sticks are one of my favorite craft tools. Fast, cheap, versatile. But speciality glue sticks are even better. I use repositionable glue sticks so I can tweak the exact position; there is also wrinkle free glue sticks for thin materials, and for kids, there is disappearing purple glue sticks which go on purple but dry clear so they can see exactly where they put the glue. — KK

From James Clear’s must-read 3-2-1 Thursday newsletter, this way of seeing with a new filter:

Look around your environment.

Rather than seeing items as objects, see them as magnets for your attention. Each object gently pulls a certain amount of your attention toward it.

Whenever you discard something, the tug of that object is released. You get some attention back.

— MF

I started playing around with AI generated art this week, using this guide from the Unlimited Dream Co. I’m blown away with what the software produces from a text prompt. Here’s a “plastic space deity” and an “alien astronaut helmet” I asked the AI to create for me. Be sure to check the Unlimited Dream Co.’s art, too. It’s incredible. — MF

This 5-minute test asks 15 questions to measure your empathy, open-mindedness, flexibility and intellectual curiosity and visualizes your thinking using floating color blob. Your personality-color blob starts off as white but as you progress through the questions, you see it add and subtract colors and change in brightness and dullness. The test is called “Thinking in colour” and that’s exactly what it inspires me to do. — CD

In my experience, you can’t have too many usb ports at your desktop. I have an Anker 13-port USB hub mounted on my desk. I can charge several devices at once but most of the ports are for data comms with the many peripherals I have connected to my PC, such as headset, mic, label printer, wacom tablets, CD player, etc. I already have all 13 slots filled and next time would go for a 16 port hub. — KK

The plastic strap on my Oculus Quest headset snapped, and I used Repair Wrap to fix it. It’s a roll of tape that comes sealed in a foil pouch. When you are ready to use it, open the pouch and dip the tape in water. Then wrap it aound the thing you want to repair. It cures in 10 minutes to form a rock-hard bond. — MF

I remember reading somewhere that customer service desks often times have a mirror mounted behind them so that customers can keep their cool when complaining. I thought of that when I read this quote from by Thich Nhat Hanh from Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions:

Whenever anger comes up, take out a mirror and look at yourself. When you are angry, you are not very beautiful, you are not presentable. Hundreds of muscles on your face become very tense. Your face looks like a bomb ready to explode.

I don’t really pull out a mirror, but when I begin to feel my face get tense I immediately remind myself to relax my jaw and muscles and it helps to temper the hot emotions. — CD

Without wasting a single second of your time, this fast-paced video by Ali Abdaall describes the best productivity apps and tools available today. Here is the highly-evolved tool set that he uses to get a lot of things done very efficiently. Well researched, well presented. — KK

After some dental work I wanted to get some soft-bristled toothbrushes and found these Nuva Dent bamboo ones on Amazon. They’re cheaper than plastic brushes and the bristles are as gentle as I hoped. — MF

This is just for fun: Tinder for Cats. I can easily spend all day swiping right on cute cats and rejecting others — even though they’re all cute of course! — CD

I’ve worked with Stewart Brand for 40 years, and at nearly every single interaction I’ve learned something important from him. He is a true original, an OG of the first order, who has been at the forefront of countercultures starting with beatniks, then the hippies, and eventually the digital technologists, and beyond. Most know him because of his early Whole Earth Catalog bestseller, but his influence and wisdom go much wider and deeper. Indeed he had a remarkable ability to be present at the beginning of many significant American cultural movements, yet his influence has been unappreciated. To remedy this, legendary New York Times reporter John Markoff has written a compelling biography of Brand, called appropriately Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand. As much as possible Markoff weaves into the story of Brand’s unusual life, his insights, his original approach to creativity and invention, and the methods by which he was able to bend our culture. It’s an easy and fast read. Full disclosure: I am biased and also appear in the book. — KK

According to the Michelle Drouin, the behavioral scientist who wrote this article “The Time Hack Everyone Should Know,” the key to taking your time back is not a phone detox or monitoring your screen time, it is to remember we have the tool of choice (use, omit or substitute) and to have a plan of action ready the next time you reach for your phone.

There are two types of action: omission — carving out some intimate times (e.g., dinner) and intimate spaces (e.g., at night in bed with a partner) without your phone, and substitution — swapping passive time on your phone with something that has proven health benefits, like a call to a friend or a walk. Then, each time you interact with your phone, you’ll have three choices: use, omit, or substitute. Remember: Shifting in small ways can lead to big changes in our daily timeclock.

She’s right when she says, “Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you’re being sucked into your technologies. Instead, see your tech use for what it is: you knowing what you like, and you choosing to engage in it (at the cost of other opportunities).”

— CD