👓 Stuff #136 - 20 pounds of 4 star please!

Hey from Dublin,

Thanks for joining me on our continued journey of curiosity, I hope this week's mail finds you safe and happy.

🥨 Last week there was a lot of love for the snack-based link, and some great feedback on the goal setting article I shared, I'm glad that some of you found that useful as you plan out your future success.

This week, we have another super list and some great new music to share your way.   I'm working on some exciting new plans for the newsletter, so if you have any ideas or feedback feel free to hit 'reply' or add something in the comments below.  I'm all 👂🏼's

Thanks again for hanging out with me - and if you could do me a favour and just forward this to one or two people, I'd be super grateful.

Thanks for being here, see you next Monday...

1. Monday Motivation:   Let this week be the one where you feel more in control of your life and work.  Improving your 'self-agency' is an important enabler, and you can take steps to build control  almost immediately.  Try these 11 small shifts right now.  One good step might be to refer to my goal setting guide.
2. Your new superpower:  Sharpen up your thinking with these 10 decision making razors... a lovely infographic that is worth saving.  If these are useful, this page has 100's of mental models to supercharge your thinking.
3. Essential Reading:   Why we forget that most people are good.   Life affirming stuff from the mind of Mark Manson
4. Take care: The secret to getting more out of exercise is not WHAT you do, but WHEN you do it.   This article explains how you can maximise your returns by changing the time of your workouts.  The even suggest a programme for a day; walk in the morning and after dinner - followed by stretches before bed.
5. TWIL:  On the outskirts of Milan there is a museum devoted to Gas (Petrol) Station paraphenalia.   Some of the pumps are super attractive.  I also learned that this stuff is called petroliana.
6. Finding Meaning:  In different stages of our life, we week and need different things.  This short but clever article really resonated with me.
7. Infinitely better:  A perfect antidote to doomscrolling the social feeds, try WikiScroll, an infinite version of Wikipedia to uncover new and interesting facts FOR. EVER.
8. AI-ght:  News Minimalist uses ChatGPT to analyse the news, and only show you the significant stuff.   This feels like a great way to cut down the amount of doomscrolling we all do.   NewMusic.ai is tracking all of the AI generated songs that are being generated.  Most of them are crappy, but they'll get better all the time.    Bonus Stuff - a completely non-technical explanation of AI and deep learning. Useful bookmark.
9. Let's go for a walk:   How about somewhere in Japan, with a cool lo-fi soundtrack?   I've got you covered with this chill site.
10. Finally:  Sweet - reassuringly old school 8-bit platform game designed to sell some cookies.   Or something.

🎧 This week I have been listening a lot to Brooklyn born composer Faten Kanaan, who has released the excellent Afterpoem.

This is a fascinating album, unlike many things you have heard before and blends cinematic & hypnotic sounds to make a beautifully ethereal collection.  The tracks are short, but feel like they have significan depth, with some haunting vocal sounds despite being entirely word free.

I have found myself gravitating back to this as a relaxing accompaniment as I work, and today, as I have written the newsletter.

Highly recommended.