Don’t laugh but I often eat my lunch in my car – while listening to podcasts. This generic lightweight plastic car tray has changed my life. It hangs on the steering wheel and makes a level tray for a sandwich and drink. No more food messes! It can also serve as a mobile office platform to write on or support a tablet or very small laptop. There are no moving parts; its shape ingeniously holds it level on most steering wheels. Don’t like plastic? You can find bamboo versions on Amazon. A tray like this is such a boon that I traced its shape and cut it out on scrap plywood to make a second one for my van. — KK

Use this website to describe the kind of music you want and it will generate a Spotify playlist for you. I entered “1966 psychedelic garage rock for AM radio” and loved the 100 songs it found for me. I also entered “melancholy yet strangely optimist music for the last person alive on a dying earth” and got another 100 amazing songs, most of which were new to me. This is a great way to discover music you might otherwise miss. — MF

Our Cool Tools Lab colleague Camille Hartsell put together a holiday wishlist of unique writing instruments and other crafty things. I really want this “fine line” painting pen and this hardcover journal with super thick paper. — CD

Something new worth worrying about: PFAS. Basically non-stick coatings like Teflon, but on many containers, and not just in food, but also in drinking water, etc. In this video Adam Ragusea does a hard look at the early science on these very hardy and persistant molecules. We’re converging on something similar to Adam: one Teflon pan, used sparingly. — KK

Repairing even a small dent in a car to its immaculate like-new condition is very expensive. But a new technique called PDR, can bring it back to a good-enough state. This Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) uses hot glue to attached grips to the outside in order to pull out the dent to its former shape, and then buffs out any scrapes, without taking panels off or repainting. This hand craft requires decent skill but only minimal tools so lots of small-time mobile practitioners outside of a body shop use it. Of course you can also buy a beginner’s PDR Kit for $35 and try it yourself with help from YouTube. Otherwise, if you have a dent or ding without paint damage, google “PDR near to me” for local service. — KK

You’ve probably heard of the Prisoners’ Dilemma, a scenario in two prisoners independently decide whether to cooperate or betray each other in order to minimize their own punishment. The best strategy for a single game is to betray the other player. But what happens if you have to repeat the scenario over and over again with the same prisoner? The betrayal strategy will fall short of other strategies, such as tit-for-tat. This website, called The Evolution of Trust, is an exciting way to learn about game theory, trust, and human behavior. — MF

My personal recommendations always lean more toward mindfulness and productivity hacks, and a lot of what I’ve shared with you are daily habits which have significantly improved my quality of life. So I went back in time to pull my own essential recomendos and I put them in a paperback book called Reco•mind•o: Mindful Recomendos for Life and Work ($14, 120 pages). It has less products to buy and more tips on how to be a better human. It is now available on Amazon and should arrive before Christmas. — CD

Swurl.com is a web search engine that is optimally designed for mobile. It instantly searches Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Amazon, YouTube, Images, News and Reddit, and all results are viewed by scrolling or swiping — no clicking. Definite timesaver. — CD

This article “How to become a truly excellent gift giver” has some great advice for gift-giving, including 3 questions to consider when gift-giving. “Can I introduce someone to something they might not otherwise know about? Can I get them a nicer version of something than they would buy for themselves? Or can I make them feel seen?” Another helpful trip is to write a mini-bio of the recipient to help you hone in on their enthusiasms and interests. — CD

I bought the ​​Ustine Portable Selfie Stick Tripod for $8 to take better selfies of my wife and myself while traveling. It exceeded my expectations. It has a detachable bluetooth button on the handle that makes it easy to take photos and video. It extends from 7 inches to 22 inches. And it has tripod legs so I can set it on the ground and take photos from farther back. I wish I’d gotten it sooner. — MF

I had fun playing the “incremental games” A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips a few years ago, and someone recently recommended Progress Knight. (There are a lot of different versions available for web and mobile; search to find one that works on your computer or device.) You start the game as a beggar with few skills or resources, and by wisely allocating your time and money, you try to level up as much as you can in the 70 years allotted to you. Once you die, you can start again with an added experience boost. — MF

We are proud that we’ve published Recomendo every week for the past 6 years. It’s free, but not cheap. You can show your support for our service by forwarding an issue you enjoyed to a friend, or sharing your support on the socials with a link. We also still have copies of the “best of” Recomendo book (2020) which makes a great holiday gift, with over 1,000 of our best recomendos. — KK

I’ve noticed that shoe stores have fewer and fewer styles or sizes. Their selections are particularly slim for anything not trendy. I’ve gone back to Zappos, the online shoe store, because they have fantastic choices in all sizes and widths. I order a bunch of variations at once, to get the perfect fit, and they make it super easy to return the unused for free. Despite this apparent inefficiency in shipping to and fro, in the end, Zappos is the most efficient way for me to find the kind of untrendy (and wide) shoes I like. — KK

I use Palette to colorize my old black and white photos into fresh color ones. It’s a free webpage that uses AI. I tested it by feeding it black and white versions of color images I had and it is remarkably accurate. And even when it is not 100% precise, it will produce very pleasing images you can save. Instantly. For free. I’m going through my scrapbook now, updating grey ones to energetic colors, sometimes using Palette’s bright filter options. — KK

After a couple of years of walking five miles a day on my treadmill desk, my knees and feet were starting to feel worse for wear. I read Craig Mod’s recommendation for TSLA lightweight trail running shoes with a wide toebox and high-quality insoles and bought them. A month later, I’m pleasantly surprised that my knee and feet pain is gone. I just bought a second pair in another color because I don’t want to wear any other shoe. — MF

Futurepedia.io is a great way to keep up with all the AI tools as they’re released and currently available in categories like Image, Text, Writing, Video, Design, etc. New tools are added daily and you can sort by New, Popular and Verified. There’s almost 1,000 tools listed as of now. — CD

A collection of quotes I’ve come across in the last few months that I’m still thinking about. — CD

• Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. — Daniel Burnham

• Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength. ― Bruce Lee

• To attract something that you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you. — Martha Beck

• Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. — Chinese proverb

• If we could see the whole truth of any situation, our only response would be one of compassion.” — Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

I made my holiday gift wish list for Cool Tools. This year instead of selecting the best tools we discovered in the past 12 months, we are listing cool stuff we desire. So contrary to our usual process, we have no idea if what we wish for is actually any good. My wish list is here. If you have opinions about what I am wishing for, add them in the comments. — KK

A highly opinionated ranked list of different apple varieties. I enthusiastically agreed with AppleRanking’s opinion of some apples (e.g., Red Delicious: “coffee grinds in a leather glove") and shaking my fist in objection at others (e.g., Fuji: “the taste of used sponge water and the consistency of the dirty leftovers it cleaned”). How does your favorite apple rank here? — MF

One of the better books of I’ve read that is crammed with very good and actionable advice for gaining happiness, success, and wealth is The Alamanack of Naval Ravikant, which is generously (a key skill!) available as a free PDF. I found myself agreeing with most of the advice. Kindle and printed book versions are sold on Amazon. – KK