Maintenance manifesto / Funeral for a tree / Budget earbuds
Recomendo - issue #499
Maintenance manifesto
Everybody dreads the chores of maintenance; Stewart Brand is trying to make maintenance cool. In his new book Maintenance: Of Everything, Brand celebrates the value, methods, even the joy of maintaining things – from cars to homes to bodies – in a series of stories, digressions, lessons, and brilliant insights. Turns out civilization is basically varieties of maintenance. Stewart Brand’s books famously change people’s minds, and this one changed my mind. I now look forward to my maintenance duties, and I learned some how to do it better from this book. — KK
Funeral for a tree
When a 65-year-old oak tree died from fungal disease, artist Steve Parker carved slices of its trunk like vinyl records, etching bird songs into the wood grain. These playable oak records are featured in a 3-minute video where you can hear the sounds of the birds that once lived in the tree’s branches. Parker also created a brass sculpture with medical ventilators that splays out like tree roots—a reference to his father’s battle with cancer. “Funeral for a Tree” is a beautiful meditation on grief that inspires me to find ways to transform what’s been lost into something that still speaks—or sings. — CD
Budget noise-canceling earbuds
My AirPods Pro started making a loud hissing noise. I tried all the different fixes the online hive mind had to offer, to no avail. They were out of warranty, and I didn’t want to spend $250 to replace them. Instead, I bought a pair of CMF Wireless Earbuds for 1/10th the price. To my ears, they sound just as good as the AirPods Pro with excellent noise cancellation and easy pairing with all of my Apple hardware. I use them for phone calls, listening to podcasts, and music. I bought the orange ones so they'd be easy to find when I drop them on the floor of a plane. — MF
Clothing fan podcast
One of my go-to podcasts these days is the non-fiction scripted show Articles of Interest, which investigates articles of clothing and other things that we wear. It is a spin-off from the legendary podcast 99% Invisible, and carries that program’s intelligence and the nerdy appeal of deep research. Now in its second season, each episode tackles the origin, history, and meaning of an article such as blue jeans, suits, wedding dresses, and even pockets! Illuminating worlds within small details is what this show is so good at. Recommended. — KK
12 distractions to leave behind in 2026
Rather than adding resolutions and goals to your new year, this article suggests 12 distractions you can leave behind — like scrolling for stress relief, push notifications for most apps, and constant background noise. When they’re listed like this, I can immediately see how leaving them behind would create more silence and space in my life, since a lot of these things seem to be the default settings for daily life. — CD
Our other newsletters
Did you know that Recomendo isn’t the only newsletter we publish? We have eight others!
Gar’s Tips & Tools Useful ideas for home and workshop. (Weekly)
Nomadico News, tips, and tools for working travelers. (Weekly)
What’s in my NOW? In each issue, a person shares things and ideas that are important to them. (Weekly)
Tools for Possibilities Curated, thematic picks from 20+ years of Cool Tools. (Weekly)
Books That Belong On Paper Recommendations of visually striking books, with sample pages. (Weekly)
Book Freak Each issue presents the core concepts from a selected self-improvement book. (Weekly)
Recomendo Deals 5-10 items previously featured in Cool Tools and Recomendo that are on sale now. (Daily)
Cool Tools All of our newsletters (besides Recomendo Deals) bundled in one issue. For true fans only! (Weekly)
In our humble opinion, they are all worth trying out, and they’re all free. — MF
THIS ISSUE IS SPONSORED BY MARKETINGIDEAS.COM
60,000+ marketers subscribe to MarketingIdeas.com for a reason. Every Thursday, Tom Orbach (Director of Growth at Wiz) breaks down one growth tactic that is working right now. Real marketing ideas, real numbers, zero fluff. Read by teams at Meta, Google, and Netflix.
Recomendo Unclassified Ads work! Reach over 124,000 subscribers for just $200.
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Snow on your windshield? Need a powerful air duster for winter clean-ups? The WOLFBOX MF200 delivers strong, cordless airflow with a swappable battery — perfect for clearing light snow, cleaning car interiors, maintaining PCs, and tackling holiday décor. A durable, gift-ready pick for Christmas.
Power Up Your Work With Setapp, get 20% off. Get access to 250+ Mac & iOS apps with Setapp — work smarter and save time. Try free for 7 days. New users get 20% off the Annual plan.
Powerful Handheld Vacuum. Rechargeable car vacuum. 4-in-1 design includes vacuum, air blower & pump. 40-minute runtime, USB-C charging. Includes HEPA filter, 3 anti-static heads, storage bag. Perfect for cars/home/kitchen.
Declutter your inbox! The Meco newsletter reader app lets you organize and read newsletters in a dedicated space. Connect Gmail/Outlook. Features offline reading, topic grouping, highlights, saved links, and custom themes. Available on iOS, Android, web. Free version with premium features.
Power up anywhere with Anker’s 5-in-1 Nano Travel Adapter! Ultra-compact design 43% smaller than competitors, charges 5 devices simultaneously with 20W fast charging—universal compatibility for 200+ countries, smart temp control & built-in safety features. Perfect travel companion!
Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, Cool Tools Weekly Newsletter, and Book Freak.
The 12 Distractions message is so on-point! Something o ponder as I watch the snow continue to cover the back yard!
Please try both again!
https://garstipsandtools.com/
https://mailchi.mp/cool-tools/recomendo-deals