Two ChatGPT tips: For a few minutes’ entertainment, let ChatGPT play 20 Questions. It is very hard to stump it. Just tell it you want to play 20 questions and it will usually guess your most obscure thing. Fun for kids. It can also play the other side. If you are an active user of ChatGPT, ask it to summarize your blind spots. It will be spot on, and most people find the succinct answer useful in its clarity. — KK

The free Adobe Scan Mobile App converts physical documents into searchable, editable PDFs. It’s faster and easier to use than Apple Notes' built-in scanner. It automatically detects document edges, corrects perspective, and improves text clarity. The OCR is accurate, letting you extract and edit text from scans instantly. I recently digitized a 50-page puzzle book in minutes using the high-speed scanning feature — just flip through pages and it captures each spread automatically, then splits them into individual pages. I’m using it to digitize snapshots, too. It straightens, color corrects, and crops the images, then saves them to my photo library. — MF

The next health frontier will be personal air quality; what are you breathing? The best measurable proxy we have right now is the level of CO2 in the air. The more CO2 present, the more likely it is full of the exhalations of others, and the greater chance of infectious agents. The small, lightest CO2 monitor is AirSpot ($144), which is smaller than the size of a thumb drive, and will give you instant CO2 levels. I carry it in my pocket when travelling; if the levels get high, I can choose to mask, or exit if possible. (The highest level I’ve seen so far is in the waiting room at the DMV.) — KK

One Task X is a simple task list that forces you to prioritize one thing at a time. You’re only allowed to have one “Today” task, and once it’s completed, you can drag another task into the box. Everything is stored in your browser, so there’s no sign-up or login needed—you can simply close the tab and return to it later. — CD

Andrej Karpathy's guide to digital hygiene has practical steps for protecting your privacy and security. Here are the essentials: Use a password manager (like 1Password) to create unique strong passwords for every service; get a hardware security key (like YubiKey) as your second factor authentication instead of text messages; and use Privacy.com to create credit card numbers that are locked to one specific merchant and can’t be used elsewhere, preventing unauthorized charges. — MF

Many people are having trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that global depopulation and not overpopulation is our challenge. The childless trend has been underway for 50 years but has accelerated dramatically recently. We are at the cusp of deaths outnumbering births on the planet, with no change in sight. I recommend this very, very long New Yorker article – “The End of Children” – as the very best introduction and explainer. It focuses on particular programs, people, and events in South Korea, which is leading the world in depopulation, much faster than the Japanese. The piece is beautifully written, expertly reported, and informed. I think everyone should read it; paste the article url link into 12FT to read it in full. — KK

This two-part talk, How to Navigate the Weirdness by Erik Davis, gave me such great comfort and clarity on how to ground myself in the complexities of our current societal consciousness. The intention behind these talks is to honestly assess the present moment and share navigational tools for sanity, sense-making, and creative engagement. Davis gives historical context and talks about the transformative cultural shifts that have led us to this point, while also addressing the psychological impacts of media saturation, among other things. His strategies emphasize flexibility, mindfulness, and critical thinking. Here is part one and part two, and here is some of his advice (paraphrased):

• Ground yourself in physical sensations and direct experiences to counterbalance the effects of media saturation and overwhelming information.

• Use foxhole or gallows humor as a tool for resilience—find connection and levity even in difficult situations.

• Embrace an "emotional remix," allowing opposite emotions like grief and joy to coexist, fostering a flexible emotional state.

• Practice situational pluralism by recognizing that multiple valid frameworks exist for interpreting reality.

• Deepen your capacity to embrace uncertainty, mystery, and doubt without searching for fact or reason—not everything fits into a fixed narrative.

—CD

I love multi-day walks, but not hefting a loaded backpack the whole way. The solution is to have my luggage bag forwarded each day, so I only walk with a tiny daypack. This liberation is heavenly, and makes me glad to walk a week or more. Luckily there are outfitters that will arrange luggage forwarding in great places to walk in the countrysides of Europe and Asia. There are no guides; you pick the route you want, and the dates you want. They arrange modest lodging, the luggage forwarding, and then give you a map on your phone. The fees are very reasonable, not much more than the lodging itself. For example, last week I used MacsAdventures to help me walk the last 100km of the El Camino de Santiago in Spain. I’ve used the same outfitter to walk several self-guided week-long rambles in the Cotswolds, England. The arrangements and luggage pickups were flawless. — KK

In Kevin Rose’s recent newsletter, he shares the results of his semi-annual survey of Favorite Things. With more than 27,000 votes across 24 categories, the results paint a clear picture of the top tools people are favoring right now. Kevin runs this survey to track the rapidly evolving AI landscape and keep his community informed on emerging trends and products. Like the results reflect, I still use most Apple and Google products for things like email, calendar, and browser, but I’ve permanently moved on from Google Search to a paid Perplexity plan, and I can’t imagine ever going back. — CD

These tiny Syntech USB-C to USB-A adapters let me connect my older USB devices to my newer laptops. The pack comes with two adapters that plug into the computer's USB port. — MF

Kickstarter uses a clever financing model where every backer’s money is returned if the full funding goal is not met. But this innovation is only one of many dozens of possible funding models, and dozen more ways of collaborating, or governing projects. Allo Mechanisms is a handy gallery of 60 different possible “capital allotment” mechanisms, already invented, that might work for your particular needs. Some of them already have implementations. — KK

Tv.garden lets you spin a globe and watch live TV streams from around the world — no subscription needed. While channel surfing, I got caught up in watching Christian music videos in Senegal, Algerian news, and TV psychic readings in Bulgaria. It’s utterly captivating and transportive. — CD

I finally tried Fly By Jing's Sichuan Chili Crisp and now I understand the hype. This umami-rich oil is packed with crunchy bits of crushed chili pepper, garlic, shallots and preserved black beans that add intense flavor and mild heat to everything from eggs to ice cream. The tingly numbing Sichuan peppercorn is what makes it addictive. While some may balk at the price for 6 ounces, a little goes a long way. — MF

Now that there are over 600 Trader Joe’s stores in the US, I feel okay to recommend a favorite item from there. I think their Coffee Bean Blast Ice Cream is the best grocery store ice cream you can buy, or at the very least, as Trader Joe’s claims, “it’s the very best coffee ice cream available anywhere on planet Earth.” I’m going to fight for that. — KK

This NPR LIFE KIT interview features Dr. Amir Levine, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, discussing attachment theory in relationships and includes a short quiz adapted from his book to help listeners discover their own attachment style. Dr. Levine emphasizes that attachment is a biological need and that the four attachment styles — secure, anxious, avoidant, and anxious-avoidant — are normal variations in human behavior rather than pathologies. I had heard of attachment theory before and even worked on my own attachment issues before getting married, but what I learned from this interview that I didn't fully understand before is that addressing attachment issues is a two-person process, not just an individual responsibility, and that becoming more secure often involves surrounding oneself with secure individuals. I took the quiz, and it reported that in relationships, I'm 100% secure, 25% avoidant, and 13% anxious. — CD

This collection of Hacker Laws is aimed at software developers, but it provides insights for anyone trying to build or change things. Here are three:

Gall's Law says grand reinventions usually fail — working complex systems can only evolve from working simple systems, never from scratch.

Chesterton's Fence warns against eliminating an old policy or process that seems pointless, before first learning why it exists.

The Principle of Least Astonishment says that systems and processes should match users' expectations and mental models — the path of least surprise is usually the path to success. — MF

If you found the documentary Free Solo – about climbing sheer mountain cliffs without ropes – nerve-wracking, then you’ll find The Alpinist documentary even more so. The crazy protagonist of Free Solo says the Alpinist is even crazier – he ascends sheer mountains in winter snow and ice – without ropes and by himself. This film tries hard to explain the why – why would anyone do this for fun? Watch till the end (on Amazon Prime). The documentary explains as well as it can be explained. — KK

Just click anywhere on the OpenTimes map of the United States and it displays color-coded zones showing how long it would take to drive, bike, or walk to surrounding areas — up to 6 hours away. (The driving times can be optimistic since they don't factor in traffic.) — MF

The Ultimate Book List is a directory of books recommended by famous personalities, celebrities, and experts. I like that it includes source links to interviews and articles where these books were mentioned. If you’re just browsing, you can filter all the listed books by "most recommended." — CD

As a photographer and artist, I’ve longed for this tool, which you can try out for free now. It’s pretty cool. Using Google’s experimental Gemini 2.0 Flash you can upload an image (photograph, painting, cartoon, etc.) and have the AI make very specific changes in the image while keeping the rest of the image intact. Usually you get very convincing edits that match the original image. Sort of like the world’s best photoshopping for free instantly. (You need to register with Google’s AI Studio > Image Generation to get this beta version. Choose Gemini 2.0 Flash (Image Generation) Experimental from the Model dropdown menu in the right column, and then use the + to upload an image, and then type your request.). — KK