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Cool tools really work.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
An Actor’s Companion: Tools for the Working Actor – Seth Barrish Even if you’re not a performer, this is full of actionable approaches to challenging assumptions, getting out of ruts, and breaking up routines so that you bring a fresh creative approach to problems.
Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers – Leonard Koren If you struggle with perfectionism or have a tendency to overwork ideas, this offers a different perspective. If you’ve ever found yourself deeply frustrated by AI that gets close to what you want, but just keeps missing the mark, you may find the celebration of imperfection and incompleteness is a great antidote.
Anker Vertical Mouse I was getting a lot of wrist issues using a traditional mouse. This eliminated that completely. It only took about 5 minutes to get used to the new orientation.
DIGITAL
AI for Humans – YouTube show and podcast making AI practical, accessible, and keep it light-hearted. Hosts are both from the media backgrounds, so this skews towards creative outputs. A quick and fun way to keep on top of the latest developments in and applications of AI. I highly recommend the YouTube version as they share lots of visuals.
DeepLearning.ai – this is a brilliant resource for upskilling in AI. Founded by the delightful Andrew Ng (Google Brain, Baidu, Stanford Uni.) who teaches many of the courses. If you’re interested in building with AI and have some technical facility, this is a great place to learn more from leaders in the field. Most courses are free (with paid certificates).
INVISIBLE
“Now is the moment to explore these new tools and shape them for the future of storytelling.” — Darren Aronofsky (filmmaker, ‘Pi’ ‘Requiem for a Dream’) talking about AI
