Micro-Lending

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 165

Powering Virtuous Circles

Let’s say you were interested in a “tool” to leverage the least amount of money into the largest measurable effect over time. For that I’d like to recommend a type of giving that multiplies itself. Over the years, these are the criteria I’ve adopted for this challenge:

1) The help is aimed at the lowest, those with the least, where small makes a huge difference.
2) The gift expands itself, gaining amplitude with each cycle.
3) The range is global.

Think of it as enabling philanthropy: take a minimum of money and aim it at the precise point where it can do the maximum good, multiplied by many generations. Maximum good is measured simply: when you enable someone to enable someone else. That is a virtuous circle.

I’ve found the following three do-good organizations to meet these criteria: Heifer International, Opportunity International, Trickle Up. They fund the neediest in the world. They are highly-evolved programs that produce amazing results. And one tangential result is that when we give to these three, we feel optimistic. — KK

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Peer-to-peer microfinance

Kiva

Micofinancing is among the better ways for the haves to help the have-nots. Small loans are made to poor but ambitious workers, who expand their livelihoods with the small loan and then pay it back. Which is then lent out again. The previously recommended agencies Opportunity International, and Trickle Up are great tools for individuals in developed countries to kick-start other folk’s self-development. These agencies do the hard work of identifying and training the recipients, and tracking loans and performance.

But why not use the peer-to-peer model to allow individuals with money to loan to specific individuals in need of a small loan? That’s what Kiva does and it works wonderfully.

Kiva enables you to make small $25 or above loans to an individual or small group of individuals in a developing country. They use these small loans (aggregated to about $200-$400) to finance a food stall, repair shop, hair salon, sewing machine, new cash crop, etc. When they pay it back to you in about 11 months, you can then re-lend it to another person of your choice.

The advantages of Kiva over the other worthy agencies are three fold. One, you can direct your loans to the kind of projects or livelihood you deem the most important or the most sympathetic. Maybe you are into food so you gravitate to funding small cafes or local fruit growers. Or maybe you think women’s sewing centers are a key. Secondly you have more direct contact with the borrowers. They have names, faces, stories. Not a few Kiva lenders have met up with folks they have lent to. Thirdly, while most microfiance agencies are thrifty, Kiva is particularly thin in administration thanks to the well-designed software platform that runs this service.

The payback rate for Kiva is about 97%. That’s a better “investment” than stocks this past year! The variety of folks you can lend to is exhilarating. The karma is good. These loans make a difference. Kiva lends $1 million dollars every 10 days. It is easy to do. A few folks are already on their third cycle of re-loaning the same money they first put up three years ago. —KK

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Global micro seed funding

Trickle Up

Rather than dispense loans, Trickle Up issues outright grants, but with strings attached. They provide seed capital and training for micro-enterprise hopefuls. Maybe someone with ambitions for a food stall, or a repair shop. A typical deal is a $100 conditional grant. Unlike in a micro-loan program, grantees don’t have to pay the money back, but they do have to get trained. Grantees must commit a minimum of 250 hours in the first 3 months to their venture, reinvest at least 20% back into it, and keep an account ledger, among other conditions. Last year 10,000 business started via Trickle Up donations, and 30,000 budding entreprenuers benefited from this global program. There is huge emphasis on training for very basic business skills. And follow up expansion grants are offered, too. About 70% of grantees are women. — KK

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Gifting breeding animal pairs globally

Heifer International

For fifty years the Heifer Project has been providing families in developing countries (and parts of the US) with breeding pairs of animals: cows, goats, pigs, rabbits, water buffalo, ducks, and so on. Even in the world’s poorest regions the cost of a cow or goat can exceed a year’s income, preventing many families from acquiring animals. When a family receives a breeding pair they get meat, milk or eggs, but more importantly, they now have a source of income as the offspring are sold.

The deal with Heifer Project is that the recipient must agree to give one breeding pair of offspring away to another family, thus paying the gift forward. Therefore a small amount of money contributed now will multiply manyfold as families gain food, pride, a source of income, and the means to help someone else. It’s hard to imagine a better gift, or a more practical, proven lever in making a difference in communities of need. —KK

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Micro-credit loans globally

Opportunity International

Micro-financing is quite the rage in international circles for one very amazing fact. The payback rate on tiny loans to the workers in developing countries is greater than the payback rate for large loans to their home countries. In other words, from an outright profit perspective, you are better off loaning money to a Bolivian peasant than to the Bolivian government. Furthermore, there is now no doubt that Bolivia itself, and any other country, is much better off if investment goes directly to their poorest citizens than to the government. Several non-profits, starting with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, have pioneered micro-credit loans on a large scale and for large investors. I’ve found the easiest way for a helpful citizen to contribute funds to a wide variety of micro-loan programs in different parts of the world is through Opportunity International. Opportunity International has been providing micro loans for 30 years, even before the term microcredit was coined. —KK

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

11/24/25

Feeling Through Art / Revealing read / Airport rides

Recomendo - issue #489

Pre-booked airport rides

I’ve used Welcome Pickups in Lisbon, Berlin, Madrid, and Paris, and it’s become my default airport-to-hotel solution. You book online before your flight, see the exact price upfront (usually comparable to Uber), and most importantly, a driver will be waiting for you right after luggage pickup with your name on a sign. They speak English and can help with your bags. They operate in over 350 destinations worldwide. It’s the small dose of certainty that makes arriving in a new city less stressful. (The link above gives you €5 off your first trip.) — MF

Animated Guide to Feeling Through Art

This 2-minute animated film blends art and therapy to guide viewers through somatic exercises for emotional regulation, especially when overstimulated or triggered in crowded spaces. Practices like resting your hands on your heart or stomach can create space for energy and also encourage it to move out of your body. These self-soothing techniques can be used when engaging with any creative medium or media, helping you to find calm and rootedness even in the busiest, most stressful environments. — CD

Revealing read

China has 100 million gig workers, delivering food, sorting packages, driving ubers, barely making it. The diary of Hu Anyan, one of those gig workers, became a runaway bestseller in China. It has just been translated into English as “I Deliver Parcels in Beijing.” It is a richly detailed, unvarnished account of what life is like in the urban underclass of modern China. What makes it so readable is Hu Anyan’s indomitable spirit of always looking at the bright side despite horrifically unfair, unsafe, and illegal conditions. He recounts his misfortunes with empathy and impartial clarity. There are more people like him in China than the population of most countries. I don’t know of anything else that reveals the “real” texture of life in China from a distance as this book. — KK

World Map of Human Ideas

Here’s a person-made map listing the birthplaces of influential ideas that shaped civilization. More than 250 of the world’s greatest ideas and inventions, color-coded by fields of knowledge. It’s fun to explore and learn something new. — CD

Best camera

I’ve been seriously photographing for 55 years and the best camera I’ve ever owned is the iPhone 17 Pro. The sensor is the clearest, most sensitive, most color true I’ve ever had. It has near infinite capacity and a great battery. And most important to me is its range of lenses including wide-angle and a new optical telephoto lens that zooms to 200mm equivalent. Awesome! The whole kit fits into my pants pocket so I always have my best camera at hand. I no longer use any other camera outside my studio. — KK

Best online file converter

Most online file converters are littered with ads and are sketchy about what they do with your files. But Vert, which is free and open-source, converts files directly on your computer, not a remote server (the exception is videos, which Vert deletes after an hour). It handles images, audio, video, and documents. The interface is clean and straightforward: drag your file, pick your format, done. — MF

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11/23/25

Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #206

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

How to Sand in Tiny Spaces

Most of my readers, especially the more hobby-minded and small project makers, likely know about sanding rods, twigs, sticks, and other specialty tools designed for small-parts sanding. But sometimes, even these solutions can’t cut it. This Model Car Muse video takes a long time to deliver its core idea… TL;DR: Use the tip of a chop stick or small dowel and circles of sandpaper cut with a hole punch and glued onto it. I am definitely going to make a few of these.

Push Reel Mowers

From the Tools for Possibilities newsletter comes this ode to the manual push mower:

Easiest hand mower

Brill Push Mower

When I first realized that my housemates were serious about me using a push mower to cut our yard, I was a little skeptical. Eventually I was won over by the environmental benefits and the sense of accomplishment that I received from using a “reel mower.” The first mower we purchased is literally called the “Prison reel mower” and I wouldn’t recommend it. The Brill Luxus 38 Reel Mower on the other hand is a sweet piece of engineering. It is very light at 17 pounds, weather resistant, and has variable height ranges. It feels good in your hands and seems very well designed. Now that I use it, I wouldn’t even consider buying a gas or electric powered mower for an average size yard. But let me warn you, using a manual mower is physically much harder, takes more time, and is very difficult if not impossible with tall grass (which means regular mowing). Whether you choose to look at that as an environmentally friendly and money-saving workout or a punishment is up to you. — Patrick Chen

My lawn mowing days are long over, but if I was still able-bodied enough, I would definitely spring for one of these. As Kevin Kelly points out in the comments, dull blades on push mowers is what makes them a chore to use, and sharpening is hard (or expensive). The Brill mower is allegedly designed in such a way that the manufacturer claims it only needs a sharpen every eight years.

TOYS! Tiny Rulers Rule!

One of my favorite moments of tool-love discovery is when I find a tool that’s an instant aha and I want to smack my forehead for going so long without understanding its indispensable utility. Enter the diminutive 6” ruler. I love rulers and I have all sorts of them: printer’s ruler, desk rulers, carpenter’s square, machinist’s ruler, sewing gauge, etc. But they’re all at least a foot long. It had never occurred to me to get a 6” ruler until I saw a hobby modeler using one and they pointed out something I understood all too well: Your workbench gets covered in stuff, then you go to, say cut some polystyrene, and you have to move everything out of the way so your 12” or 15” ruler can lay flat on the cutting mat. For small-scale work, the 6-incher solves that beautifully. And, for under $6, you get three. I now have one at each of my workstations.

Extension Cord and Power Strip No-Nos

It’s coming upon that time of the year when the unknowing play electrical-cord fire roulette with their extension cords and power strips. CNet has a service journalism piece on 7 devices to keep far away from extension cords and power strips. I assume Gar’s Tips & Tools readers know these basic extension cord fire hazard scenarios already (space heaters, toaster ovens, microwaves, etc.). But just in case…

Here’s the TL;DR:

“…The big thing to keep in mind regarding extension cords is to never use them with ‘any appliances whatsoever.’ He also said that your average home extension cords [and by that I assume he means 16- and 14-guage cords -ed] shouldn’t be used for anything above 15 amps (1,800 watts), regardless of where or how the device operates. With power strips and surge protectors, those should only be paired with electronics.”

Which Adhesive is Best for HDPE Plastic

In this video, Hacks By Dad tests 13 different tapes, glues, and epoxies to determine which is the stronger bond between two HDPE bottle caps. The caps were glued together and then subjected to a weight-pulling jig. The top three winners were JB KwikWeld (at 20.2 lbs of holding power), Gorilla 5-min Epoxy (25.8 lbs.), and… the winner is: Dap Rapid Rise (at 27.6 lbs). For mounting tape, Duck brand hung on for an impressive 19.8 lbs. before failure.

How to Repair Broken Plastic

In more plastic makery news: I have always been intrigued by plastic hot staple welding. In this Chris Notap video, he gives one a go on a split recycling can. If you’re gonna repair anything plastic, your recycling can seems top o’ the list. We have a split in out municipal recycling bin. Maybe I’ll try to hot staple weld it rather than turning it in for a new one. The kit he used is cheap, at $35, and there are ones under $20. Since this is not a high-use tool for most of us, a cheap tool is probably good enough.

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Consider a Paid Subscription

Gar’s Tips & Tools is free. But if you really like what I’m throwing down and want to support it, please consider a paid subscription. Same great taste, more cheddar to help keep me in tattoo wash bottles. Plus, I’ll occasionally pick paid subscribers at random and send them little treats, tools, or tip-related treasures.

Your support keeps this whole Rube Goldberg contraption lovingly cobbled together and running…smoothly (enough). Thank you!

Special thanks to Hero of the Realm members: Jim Coraci, Donobster, Peter Sugarman, and Will Phillips for your generous support.

11/21/25

Pricier Mexican Residency/SteriPEN Ultralight/Expat Issue Discussions

Nomadico issue #180

Residency Permit Prices Doubling in Mexico

A flood of immigrants has been on the move since January, this time Americans going from the USA to Mexico, and apparently the government is ready to cash in on the influx. If you want to apply for Mexican residency, prices are going to double in January to get legal, per the newly approved budget. Getting one year of temporary residency (which you renew for three more) will more than double to $603 at the current exchange rate, while getting permanent status will cost you $876. There are rumors of the high income/savings requirement adjusting downward under a years-old edict that was never implemented, but that’s not official.

Invest in a SteriPen

I’m back in Mexico, in Baja this time, in one of many countries where you can’t trust the tap water for drinking. Like my blogger buddies at HoneyTrek I spent time with recently in Patagonia, I almost never buy or use bottled water in single-use plastic (though I can’t claim a spotless 14-year run like they can). The secret weapon we long-term international travelers have in our bag is a SteriPEN: a UV wand purifier that turns any tap water into purified water. I’ve used about every model in more countries than I can count, including a lot of years traveling with a family, and never have had stomach problems. I’ve got the Adventurer Opti version now, which is not ideal because it uses CR123 batteries. A better bet is the UltraLight UV version that recharges by USB. It’ll easily pay for itself and our future great-grandchildren will thank you.

Nomads Talking About Nomad Issues

Jason Moore has been giving up the mic now and then lately on his Zero to Travel podcast to let his producer and partnership manager, who are both remote workers, do “Remote Roundup” episodes. The two nomadic women talk about joys and problems they are encountering on the road, with more depth than you get in a typical interview format. Here’s the October one, which covers everything from bad bathroom design to living out of one bag to why it costs less to travel than to stay home. They look at these angles from all sides, like pointing out that being nomadic for months will cost you less than living where you came from, but not if you’re still paying for a house and a car while you’re mobile.

Expats Behaving Badly

Substack writer Julia Hubbel publishes a newsletter called Too Old for This Sh*t, from the point of view of an injury-prone 70-something advising others how to stay active and keep adventuring. I loved the latest one: Don’t Land in Hell by Bringing it With You. It’s a great summary of what many expats see but few mainstream media outlets point out in their rose-colored desk coverage: some people really aren’t meant to move abroad. Some want to shut the door behind them, keeping out “the others.” Others move to a developing country because it’s cheaper and then complain about…the lack of development. Some won’t learn even the basics of their host country’s language, while complaining about transaction misunderstandings and hurdles trying to navigate healthcare or get house repairs done. Read it to avoid problems later if/when you move.

11/20/25

What’s in my NOW? — Molly Harris

issue #231

Bookworm, amateur photographer, and litigation assistant who enjoys the surreal and the silly. Website: galaxygirlgeek.com.

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PHYSICAL

• Digital hygrometer. Turns out my comfort’s much more about humidity than temperature. I plug this into a custom-made calculator that calculates my microlocal dew point and then where that falls on dew-point comfort charts.
• Fidget slider. It feels remarkably well-engineered and solid for a $10 purchase, and helps me when I need to surreptitiously get some nervous energy out of my system.
• These might as well be called “ear canal scratchers.” Q-Tips will tell you they’re not to be put in your ear. I’ve never found something that so satisfyingly scratches the itches that occasionally develop inside my ear canal. (Neither me nor WIMN are responsible if you push yours too far! Take caution!)

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DIGITAL

• Inoreader is an excellent RSS reader, but does a lot more. It lets me monitor YouTube, non-RSS pages, and a lot more. The user interface is extremely intelligent, and it’s very well-featured. The only criticism I have, and it’s a significant one, is that if you have a suggestion for them, you might as well drop it into the Darvanza gas crater for all it’s worth – they proceed on their own plan and timetable.
• Tetr.io is a fantastic tetronimo game with multiple modes. I have been diagnosed with CPTSD, and even if you don’t have a formal diagnosis, nowadays we are all dealing with stress that’s been quadrupled in amount. Studies show that visuospatial interference tasks (like playing a tetronimo game) can help with trauma and stress – and I find playing it when I am stressed, or have had a real bad day, a great way to help towards resetting my brain.

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INVISIBLE

“This too shall pass.”

Originally from an English translation of a 19th century Persian poem. It does the dual duty of giving you inspiration to truly be in, and enjoy, the good moments, for they are not forever; and letting you know that although these bad moments feel like they will stretch out into eternity, they are impermanent, and an end will come to them as well.

11/19/25

The Creative Architect / How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Issue No. 93

THE CREATIVE ARCHITECT – AN ICONIC ‘50S CREATIVITY STUDY FINALLY COMES TO LIGHT IN BOOK FORM

The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study
by Pierluigi Serraino
Monacelli Press
2016, 248 pages, 7.7 x 9.25 x 1.1 inches

Buy on Amazon

In 1958 and ‘59, an unprecedented study was conducted by the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research at the University of California, Berkeley. The idea was to apply the latest psychological tests on the world’s most famous and accomplished architects to try and determine what makes them so creative and successful. In studying them, could some magical key to creativity be discovered?

Astoundingly, some 40 major architects volunteered, including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, George Nelson, Louis Kahn, and A. Quincy Jones. The group spent three days being subjected to a battery of tests, sitting for interviews, even evaluating the creative and design prowess of each other. While the idea was to publish the results of the tests at the time, besides some news and fluff pieces about the study, and some superficial conclusions about the nature of the creative impulse that drove these design superstars, the full results of the study have remained unpublished until this impressive new release from Monacelli Press.

The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study is a lovely and thought-provoking time-capsule of a book. Through its numerous black and white photos and reprints of the research materials, correspondences between the subjects of the study and the psychologists, and news clippings of the day, the book paints a surprisingly evocative picture of this unique study and the era in which it was conducted. Reading the test results, in the architects’ own hands, and the evaluations of the researchers, is fascinating.

So, what conclusions did the study finally reach? Nothing earth shattering. Going into the study, the research group had circulated a list of “genius” attributes from a 1957 book about Freud, which included things like “the power of deep concentration, tremendous patience, and self-discipline…” and “ability to generalize from the particular and to separate the significant from the unimportant…” Drawn from the data, the conclusion of the study: “What propels creativity is the unfettered expression of the self,” “finding the solution to a problem is not sufficient to bring them personal satisfaction: there is a further demand for the solution to be elegant,” and the discovery that creative individuals “consistently safeguard their self-determination in order to stay their course and pursue what interests them no matter what, in a fierce escape from conformism of thought and behavior.”

The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study doesn’t contain any easy, replicable recipes for living a creative life, for becoming a design god. But what it does do is curate a captivating collection of literal and figurative snapshots from a peak time in design history and the creative genius that drove it. And that is ultimately very inspiring.

[RELATED: Here’s an excellent podcast episode about the study from 99% Invisible. – Mark] – Gareth Branwyn

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HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES – NEIL GAIMAN AT HIS BEST WITH FANTASTIC CHARACTER MOMENTS

How to Talk to Girls at Parties
by Neiman Gaiman (author), Gabriel Bá (illustrator), and Fábio Moon (illustrator)
Dark Horse Books
2016, 64 pages, 6.9 x 10.5 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story of the same name, originally published in his collection Fragile Things. As adaptations go, this one tells the story pretty exactly as it was done by Gaiman. Two teens named Enn and Vic go to a party with the intention of picking up girls. Vic is handsome and confident, while Enn is shy and awkward. Enn doesn’t know how to talk to girls, and this becomes the central problem of the story. His attempts to seem cool and desirable are both humorous and relatable to anybody who has ever tried talking to a potential love interest. As the night moves on, it becomes clear that something is amiss at this party, but exactly what is unknown to Enn, and a little ambiguous to the reader.

I really like this book. At first glance it might seem like an odd choice for a comic – the story doesn’t reach the heights of some of Gaiman’s other work, for example. But it’s short and sweet and so unique. The story is Gaiman at his best in terms of information release and character moments. You’re never completely ahead of the plot and it is so easy to sympathize with Enn’s awkwardness. The charm of the original story was Gaiman’s ability to play with a young man’s feeling that girls were practically another species, and that aspect thrives in this version. In terms of visual storytelling and artistic prowess, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá are absolute masters, and I cannot recommend their work here enough. They have an incredible ability to draw worlds that look like reality, but maybe just a few degrees more fantastic. What perfect partners for Gaiman’s work.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties gets my highest recommendation, both for fans of Gaiman and/or Moon & Bá as well as fans of unique sci-fi. It’s a short book you can breeze through pretty quickly, and then immediately restart to find more hints of what’s really going on. A film adaptation directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole) is set to debut in 2017, so at the very least this interesting comic will prepare you for the film. – Alex Strine

11/18/25

What’s in my NOW? — Molly Harris