Often science documentaries these days are fluffy with wiz-bang graphics, slick re-enactments, endless repetitions, and fancy hosts, but Doug’s Geology Journal, a series on Amazon Prime, has none of those. Doug is a regular-guy geologist who draws his own graphics with pencil, and carries his own camera as he trudges across the landscape, giving the big picture of what has happened to shape the land, and how that shapes the culture on it. He gives you the right level of details, at the exact place on the land, which makes the big picture visible. He’s my favorite geology teacher. — KK
Seth Godin's advice for the “Amateur Presenter” is excellent advice if you ever find yourself called to give a public talk. Seth says focus on passion and purpose rather than professional polish. It's natural to be nervous, particularly if you're not a seasoned presenter — don't apologize for it. Having something interesting to say is more important than perfect delivery. Instead of trying to engage everyone in the room, find one person who seems receptive to your message and speak as though you're having a conversation with them. — MF
Genius Wisdom is a daily newsletter I don’t mind invading my inbox. Each issue highlights a “legendary thinker” with practical tips and tasks for applying their genius vision to your own life. It’s a good daily motivator. — CD
Despite their small size, Victorinox’s compact, fold-up nail clipper delivers a powerful cut, with extremely sharp blades that require minimal force. If you have only ever used cheap drug store nail clippers, this will surprise you. — MF
This advice on How to Title Your Art is written for gallery artists, but I think it’s useful for anyone who writes titles or headlines. The most interesting takeaways for me are:
Think of titles like keywords. What kinds of words do you use when talking the work? These types of words are excellent starting points for titles.
Titles should save time. A title gives them a starting point, a reason to slow down and take a closer look.
Good titles help people to recognize what may not be immediately obvious. Titles help viewers see what you want them to see.
Unusual words or word combinations tend to attract more interest and attention than ordinary ones.
— CD
I’m enjoying Stewart Brand’s newest book which is about Maintenance: of Everything. However, the book is not done yet. Stewart is posting drafts of chapters as he writes them in a way that solicits feedback from readers. So not only can you read the book early, you can influence the book, as many readers have already. Everything, from your car to your local town, needs to be maintained, but is often neglected, so this book has something useful and pertinent for everyone in making maintenance more exciting. — KK
I am late to discovering cooperative board games. Instead of competing with other players to win, you cooperate with them to win. This changes the vibe of a game in a significant way, transforming it from a me thing to a we thing. There is a whole world of cooperative games, but the one I enjoy the most so far is The Crew. Each round of the game consists of “missions” the players need to complete, and the missions get more complicated – requiring more cooperation – as the game progresses. There is a bit of a learning curve, but everyone playing is on the same team (the crew), so helping each other becomes the norm. I am much more interested in playing games now and very uninterested in playing standard competitive games. — KK
I don’t know whether chiropractic care is effective or not, but just watching this animal chiropractor adjust the skeletal system of dogs makes me feel better. Known as Der Knochenknacker (“The Bone Cracker”), Murat Colak is an animal osteopath from Germany who has TikTok and Instagram channels with videos of him loudly cracking the joints of dogs. His love for animals shines through in the clips. — MF
I got a clearer picture of present and future technologies thanks to Time’s list of the Best Inventions of 2023. There are 200 inventions listed and some consumer products you can even buy now. This may be silly, but I can’t wait until you can buy these reusable interlocking cup and plates at the store. — CD
On your next visit to San Francisco (or if you live there) walk across this small city on the SF Crosstown Trail. Even though I have lived in or near San Francisco for forty years, I discovered all kinds of gems, and stunning views that I had no idea existed. The route is engineered to pass through as many neighborhood parks as possible, with unexpected turns, and hidden treasures. Although you can do its 17 miles in one long day, we divided it into multiple days, ubering back to our start place. The entire walk is enjoyable, safe, and endlessly surprising. Download the app so you can easily follow the trail on your phone. For locals, the trail runs from the new Candlestick Point Park to Land’s End national park. If similar transecting crosstown walks exist for other great cities, let me know. — KK
This infograph titled “8 Factors of Happiness” is worthy of revisiting whenever you notice discomfort. I’ve found the quickest way to dispel unhappiness is to ask myself introspective questions to find the source. Based on these 8 factors of happiness, I would ask myself:
Am I feeling suspicion and resentment?
Am I living in the past (or in the future)?
Am I wasting time and energy fighting conditions I can’t change?
Am I isolating myself or withdrawing from the world?
Am I indulging in self-pity?
Am I expecting too much of myself?
I then continue the line of questioning to gain more self-awareness or I pivot to an easy gratitude practice, like listing 10 things that make me happy on my fingers. This usually gets me out of my head and back to the present moment, as well as in alignment with the values and experiences that make me happy. — CD
This website is a tool for ranking a list of items such as movies, video games, restaurants, songs, or anything else. You start by inputting an unordered list of the items you want to rank. Then you click the button, and it displays two items from the list. Click your favorite of the two, and then it displays another pair of things from your list. After several rounds, the site generates a ranked list for you, ordering your items from best to worst. — MF
In this article on navigating content overload, Jorge Medina outlines the importance of having a personal curation system. His premise is “You’re not lacking creativity, you’re overwhelmed” and talks about the concept of digital hoarding and how the overwhelming amount of internet content can lead to decision fatigue. He recommends being intentional about your curation system and using a framework like CODE, which stands for:
Capture - Keep what resonates
Organize - Save for actionability
Distill - Find the essence
Express - Show your work
For me, the whole point of collecting links and keeping tabs open is for inspiration and to learn something new, so I really appreciate this reminder. As far as a “tool” goes, I’m still really happy with my OneTab recommendation from two years ago, and highly recommend it to organize your tab clutter. — CD
Meta (Facebook) quietly revealed their latest version of virtual reality tech as a demo between Mark Zuckerberg and podcaster Lex Fridman. The video of their interaction is worth watching to get a glimpse of how virtual presence might work between two people. Although each person is wearing goggles, they experience a full-sized 3D avatar of the other person without goggles. It’s a technological trick that seems to work, and might be in our future as something better than Zoom. — KK
"The Cows Are Mad" is a podcast series from BBC Radio 4 that explores the unsettling Mad Cow Disease epidemic of the 1990s. This strange and fatal neurological disease not only wreaked havoc on Britain's bovine population, it also claimed the lives of 178 humans. If you like zombie fiction, you’ll probably like this zombie nonfiction about cannibal cows. — MF
Photosweep is an iPhone app (sorry, no Android) that works like Tinder for your photos. It displays the photos in your library one at a time. Swipe left to delete, swipe right to keep. It has quite a few other useful features, too. It costs $20, or $10 a year. — MF
I didn’t know it, but I guess I did need another search engine for restaurants. Map of the Best filters only “the best” restaurants near you based on stars, awards and reviews. It eliminates a lot of the Yelp noise and is especially helpful for me in San Jose, California where there’s an abundance of Mexican restaurants serving delicious food. — CD
The legendary publications of the Whole Earth Catalogs — all 20,000 pages — are now available online for free at the Whole Earth Index. These hi-res scans are almost better than the original newsprinted ones. They are a breeze to browse and navigate, and on a large monitor, very easy to read. First published in the 1970s and 1980s, these pages were the internet before the internet. The how-to books were pre-YouTube, and the articles pre-web blogs. Most of the content is still refreshingly informative today. — KK
This week a annular solar eclipse crossed a good swath of the US, but this “ring of fire” eclipse was not a total eclipse. The difference between an annular eclipse and a total eclipse is night and day. The next total eclipse in the US will be April 8 next year. The best source for tracking its path, with expected cloud coverage, duration of totality, and ideal viewing spots is this wonderful website, The Eclipse Company. — KK
Small gatherings are perfect for renewing old friendships and more importantly, for making new friends. Nick Gray has written a short book – The 2-Hour Cocktail Party – that gives you explicit step by step instructions on how to host highly structured parties at your home that maximize conversations. Gray has hosted hundreds of these non-dinner parties and his tips are exactly what works in my experience. I didn’t think I’d needed a book to help me throw a party, but his directions and check lists – down to what the emails should say, and what to do each day in the countdown before the party are incredibly useful, and even inspiring. Get this book, throw a 2-hour party with name tags and icebreaker questions, and it will be great! — KK