The Prompt Book/PlayPhrase/Things you are allowed to do
Your first prompt book
Everyone will soon have access to an AI image generator, like DALL·E, Midjourney, or Google Imagen. You will tell this tool what to create and it will make an imaginative piece of art, either a painting or a photograph. With a generator you can make art even if you are “not an artist.” The key human skill is in how you construct the prompt you give the AI. The Prompt Book is a free PDF e-book that provides smart instructions, great tips, and fabulous examples of how best to prompt the AI. It was produced with DALL·E in mind, but it’s guidance can be used with any recent AI image generator. This is the first of what I predict will be many prompt books in the future. — KK
Play with phrases
PlayPhrase.me is a fun distraction to play with for a bit. The intention of the site is to help teach how to apply phrases in English. You type in any phrase and it will play you scenes in movies and television where your words have been spoken. You can even download the clips. You can view 5 phrases per search, but anything past that requires a $3 per month Patreon sponsorship. — CD
Things you are allowed to do
Milan Cvitkovic’s long list of “things you're allowed to do,” is chock-full of fun and surprising tips and suggestions. Here are a few:
Write on a post-it note affixed to a greeting card rather than on the greeting card itself, so the recipient can throw away the post-it and reuse your card
Cold contact people. Yes, even famous people. Just make sure you have something to say.
Learn how professionals email by reading leaked emails [from Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Sunny Balwani, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.].
— MF
Great binoculars
Great binoculars are a joy to use. In the last few years there’s been a quiet revolution in optics so that you can now get thousand-dollar quality lenses for several hundred dollars. My favorite pair are the Athlon Midas ($225), which are amazingly bright, with an extremely wide view, and relatively small build. These are 8x42 (standard birder strength) but can also focus close for viewing butterflies, dragonflies, etc. If you have not looked through some contemporary binoculars, borrow one to be surprised. — KK
Archive of visualized concepts
The Archivve is a collection of Jack Butcher's Visualize Value content that you can filter and search. Ideas and concepts need to anchor themselves within me visually to become absorbed. Images help to pivot the way I think. And these minimalistic, yet striking visuals are fun and enlightening and wise. — CD
+6.0 reading glasses
I normally wear +3.0 reading glasses but I bought this inexpensive 5-pack of +6.0 glasses to see tiny things, like markings on electronic components, fine print, splinters, and so on. I kept the small “+6.00” label affixed to the upper left corner of the lens so I don’t get them mixed up with my regular glasses. — MF
— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson
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