The key premise of Recomendo is that everything we have suggested weekly in the past 10 years has been a personal recommendation based on our own experiences. It is something we have seen, heard, visited, or used ourselves. For this Christmas, we’d like to deviate from that principle slightly (and temporarily) to provide you with a dozen of recommendations from our subscribers. That is you. For our brand new Annual Christmas Reader Recommendations issue we will select the best personal recommendations submitted within the next 4 weeks by October 25. To keep it sane, just one recommendation per subscriber. Keep it short and personal. Suggest a product, tool, app, place, book, documentary, podcast, follow—anything—that you genuinely love, and few know about. No self-promotion. Beyond the dozen we share in the newsletter, we will post all of the vetted submissions on our website.
Reasons to have kids
Recently I wrote a short piece on my Substack that got a lot of attention. Many found it helpful, and to some it was news: Six Selfish Reasons to Have Kids. A better title might have been Six Selfish Reasons Why I Had Kids. — KK
Visual archive on verticality
On Verticality is an architect’s research blog devoted to his theory of verticality and how our innate desire to ascend developed through human evolution and found expression in architecture, flight, religion, art, and stories. It’s a vast visual archive organized around one question: “Why do humans have an innate need to escape the surface of the earth?” This has definitely been an existential crisis for me, so I’m fascinated by this entire body of research and will take my time exploring it. — CD
A timer for Zoom
Zoom’s Timer app is a countdown clock you can keep private or make visible to everyone in the meeting. You can silence the alarm, choose a sound, and set one timer or queue up several for different speakers or parts of a meeting. I facilitate online groups, and this spares me from using my phone timer, which is distracting when I need to stay present and on screen. — CD
Easy screen protector
Whenever I get a new phone, I buy a case and a screen protector. But attaching a screen protector is finicky and nerve-racking: one tiny bubble or dust speck can ruin it. This screen protector from TOCOL comes with a plastic frame that prevents misalignment, plus wet wipes, dust-remover stickers, and a squeegee to remove bubbles. Tip: buy it before you get your phone, then use it as soon as you remove the plastic sheet the manufacturer puts on the screen, so you don’t have to deal with dust and smudges. Wearing nitrile gloves is a good idea, too. A kit costs about $10 and comes with two protectors. — MF
Siri gets smart
Apple released OS 27 for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac, and it comes with an AI version of Siri. It’s a vast improvement over the earlier versions, which were almost unusable. The new Siri works with all of the Apple apps, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Calendar, Photos, and Music. Your personal data stays on your phone, and even Apple can’t access it.
In David Pogue’s latest newsletter, he shows you 125 different things you can tell Siri to do. I’m using a lot of them already. Here are a few examples:
(Highlight a folder of files on the Mac, right-click:) What’s the total of these invoices? What’s the average? (“The total for the six invoices found in your Receipts folder is $4,692.79. The average amount is $782.13.”)
What are people waiting on me for? (Generates list from Mail, Messages, and Reminders. Incredible. Everything I did for this column was supposed to be for testing purposes only, but this one actually found stuff I’d forgotten I was supposed to do!)
(Running late to a party:) What’s the apartment number!? (“The apartment number for the Bynum party tonight is 10-F.” Note: I never said what party or what day!)
Change pickle to nickel. (You can use this when you’ve dictated a text message, and realize that there’s a mistranscription. Now you can correct it by voice! So much simpler than fussing around with the insertion-point cursor.)
— MF
Sketchbook journal artists
I’ve been keeping a sketchbook journal, where I visually record each day’s events, moods, or environment – as a way of making a diary. For inspiration on Instagram I follow a bunch of artists who are also prolific sketchbook creators. A few I return to:
Pep Carrio – Each page could be a framed artwork
Adam Koford – Cartoony, doodles
Austin Kleon – Collages
Danny Gregory – High diversity of styles
If you shy from Instagram and want the appropriate analog, Danny Gregory also wrote/edited the best printed book on private sketchbook journaling. An Illustrated Life showcases the pages of 50 different sketchbook artists. You are allowed to do whatever you want on your pages. — KK
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Regarding "Verticality", I cite the poem "Unrest" from Don Marquis from 1916:
https://allpoetry.com/poem/8550733-Unrest-by-Donald-Marquis
A fierce unrest seethes at the core
Of all existing things:
It was the eager wish to soar
That gave the gods their wings.
From what flat wastes of cosmic slime,
And stung by what quick fire,
Sunward the restless races climb!—
Men risen out of mire!
There exists a song with these words; I think it is in one of the Unitarian hymnals and in "Shenandoah Harmony", the shape note hymnal recently published.
I’ll bet any victims of Zoom meetings would agree that the Zoom Timer is one of the greatest contributions to society in the past 100 years!