Flighty / 23 learnings on community / Keep the Meter Running
Recomendo - issue #506
Best flight-tracking app
On a recent flight from LA to Portland, I used Flighty on my iPhone and was impressed by how much it knew about my trip. It let me know we’d be landing 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and even on the plane’s free texting-only Wi-Fi, it kept updating my flight status and showed me where my plane was on a map. You can share your trip with family so they get automatic landing alerts. The app is beautifully designed, and the “Where’s My Plane?” feature tracks your inbound aircraft up to 25 hours early, so you can see trouble coming. It also warns you about tight connections and tracks your lifetime flying stats on a nice passport-style map. Free for basics; Pro ($59/year or $299 lifetime) adds push alerts, weather radar, and calendar sync. iOS/Mac/Apple Watch only. — MF
23 learnings on building community
I am so grateful when someone who is truly adept in their field shares their learnings, and Patricia Mou’s essay is a decade’s worth of wisdom in community building and holding space. My own personal journey with community has been about repairing what went wrong in the church structures I grew up in, so I feel very lucky now to be a facilitator and spaceholder within a few small webs of community, both online and in person. This essay reaffirms that, when it’s done well, community can be both life-changing and world-changing. The learnings that resonate most for me are: You will become everyone’s mother and father whether you want to or not. / You cannot ask for transcendence from a nervous system that hasn’t yet landed. / Light structure is what makes deep emergence possible. / What your community doesn’t talk about shapes it as much as what it does. — CD
Uplifting social follow
A really great TikTok and Instagram follow is Keep the Meter Running. A guy waves down a taxi in New York City, jumps in and says “take me to your favorite place and keep the meter running.” The cabbie is then interviewed on their way to their favorite place, usually a very local ethnic restaurant. Without fail, each cabbie turns out to have a remarkable life story, summoned forth by the sensitive probing of the back seat passenger, comedian Kareem Rahma. This is the real America! A longer previous version of this routine ran on TV a few years ago, but at only a few minutes long, this show is brilliant. — KK
OXO Good Grips angled measuring cup
The markings on our Pyrex 2-cup measuring cup wore off after years of use, so I replaced it with the OXO Good Grips Angled Measuring Cup, made of non-BPA plastic. The clever part is the slanted surface inside the cup with measurement lines you can read by looking straight down — no more crouching to check at eye level. It’s lightweight and has a soft non-slip handle. Also available in 1-cup and 4-cup sizes. — MF
In Every Language
In Every Language is a Wikipedia search engine that lets you see how different regions of the world depict the same thing. It’s very cool to search a word and notice the subtle ways different cultures and collective psyches encode the same idea differently across languages. — CD
Best quick-release phone holder
Since my phone is now my camera, I needed an easy way to attach it to a tripod. The solution is this metal adapter that holds the phone with a circle of magnets. The Mosenvka Portable Phone Grip ($29) then screws into the tripod head. But once I had it, I started using this same rig to hold my phone on my desk for FaceTime and video sessions, at the perfect angle. Its base also has a second heavy-duty magnet so the whole thing can stick anywhere there is metal, useful for filming. The holder rotates in any direction at any angle with just the right balance of ease and stiffness, to keep the phone rock steady. The whole thing is machined metal instead of plastic, so it is very rigid and stable. If your phone supports it, a magnetic ring is by far the best quick-release hold system. — KK
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I needed a little more stable phone mount to use inside of the car and on a motorbike. I found quadlock a solid choice. i have one in each car, one on the bike, one on the motorscooter, and one in my backpack which is the tripod mountable piece. the system uses magnet as well as it unique locking system. a 45 degree turn locks the phone in place and allows for horizontal or vertical orientation. probably the best phone holder ive ever used. Ive tried magnet only systems and they are great for inside or static mounting, this one allows for mounting when there is possible heavy vibrations that would otherwise drop the phone.
I love Recomendo but I do have one suggestion. Not everybody, in fact, an iPhone user. While you are hitting about 60 percent of the US market, you are leaving behind 70 percent of global Android users. Apps like Flighty are a total miss for me, as I prefer Android. If you would suggest apps that are available on both platforms, it would be a more useful newsletter to many.