The Magnet/masterWiki/Two Minute Papers

Read The Magnet

If you like Recomendo, I think you'll like the new longer-form newsletter I just launched. Every week in The Magnet I write about tips I find useful, things that interest me, what I've learned, interviews, recipes, quotations, and more. I also include excerpts from my favorite newsletters. — MF

MasterClass courses translated into wikiHow guides

The most recent "drop" of MSCHF (which deserves it's own deep dive) is masterWiki. They claim to have stolen MasterClass' content and paired it up with wikiHow's iconic visuals. I'm not sure how accurate or effective these summaries are, but as someone who prefers to read rather than watch video tutorials, I appreciate this little unauthorized sneak peak into the MasterClass series. I'm not sure how long this website will be up, so I've taken screen captures of the ones that interest me. My favorite is RuPaul's How to Be Your True Self. — CD 

Granite-coated non-stick cookware

For years, my family has been using Le Creuset cast iron pans. The large one is almost too heavy for my wife to deal with. Also, they take a long time to heat up. While we are not ready to get rid of them, I recently discovered Carote non-stick frying pans. They're coated with some kind of natural Granite material and they have a bakelite handle that stays cool (unlike the Le Creuset handles that get extremely hot). The aluminum Carote heats up quickly, and it is the best non-stick frying pan I've ever had. Everything just slides right out of it and it's very easy to clean with water and a paper towel. you can try out the 8-inch frying pan, which costs under $15 to see if you like it before buying a larger pan. — MF

Quick research explainers

Two Minute Papers is a YouTube channel featuring short videos (sometimes 5 minutes long) created by a professor who reviews new research papers in visual programming, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer graphics, simulations, and other state-of-the-art computer science. He explains the research’s significance, while running very cool graphics demo-ing the results. I find it a painless way to keep up in this fast moving field.  — KK

Pocket gel pens

A few years ago a reader turned me onto a nifty variation of my favorite Pilot G2 gel pen, which is a mini pocket version of the same pen. Same liquid black, same fine tip, same profile, just a lot shorter to better fit into my pocket. The Pilot G2 Mini is my everyday carry.  — KK

Quotables

Just a gathering of advice and ideas that I have come across in the last few months and has stayed with me since. — CD

Zuibun nagaki ikasarete itadaite orimasu ne.

“I have been alive for a very long time, haven’t I?”

Totally impossible to translate, but the nuance is something like: I have been caused to live by the deep conditions of the universe to which I a humbly and deeply grateful. P. Arai calls it the “gratitude tense,” and says the beauty of this grammatical construction is that “there is no finger pointing to a source.” She also says, “It is impossible to feel angry when using this tense.” — Ruth Ozeki (found in the Social Social Distance Club)

"To realize your existence, do the things you know you should do — the duties that echo from deep below. Stop avoiding your life." — u/TheEmployedMoth1 on Reddit

"When you are making plans, you are actually not making plans but you are creating reality..." — Somewhere on Reddit

“A big secret is that you can bend the world to your will a surprising percentage of the time—most people don’t even try, and just accept that things are the way that they are. ... Ask for what you want. You usually won’t get it, and often the rejection will be painful. But when this works, it works surprisingly well.” — Sam Altman, How To Be Successful

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

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