Sign up here to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.

Best advice from different professionals

Someone on Reddit asked “What’s your best advice from your profession?” and below is a summary of the most upvoted answers. — CD

• Doctor: Never be afraid to get a second opinion. If your doctor is offended, that’s one more reason to get one.
• Teacher: Read to your kids from infancy, make books commonplace, and point out things in the pictures. This helps them develop literacy skills from an early age.
• Plumber: Check your basement weekly for leaks or signs of damage, and change your air filter regularly.
• Auto insurance adjuster: Get a dashcam to protect yourself in case of accidents or disputes.
• Librarian: Ditch Audible and get a library card to listen to free audiobooks. Many libraries offer apps where you can download audiobooks straight to your phone.
• Government worker: Find life satisfaction outside of the workplace.
• Sales: Never celebrate until the money is in your account, regardless of how many times the client said yes or if there are signed documents.
• HR: Underpromise, overdeliver, and keep your mouth shut to maintain a good reputation at work.

360-degree videos from around the world

Visit AirPano to watch 360 videos of beautiful places on Earth, from Tokyo’s Shibuya Scramble pedestrian crossing (the busiest in the world), to a village of the Warao Indigenous people on the Orinoco River in Venezuela. My travel bucket list grew after watching some of these videos. — MF

Map of your bioregion

The concept of a “bioregion” is a powerful tool. A bioregion will share animal and plant types and a similar climate. It is the most natural way to divide up the planet since it follows nature. For instance parts of California, Italy, Chile, Australia and South African share a similar bioregion. Maps of bioregions can aid gardening, home design, urban planning, climate adjustment, and understanding of culture. The best bioregion maps are no longer printed on paper but can be downloaded online from One Earth at Bioregions 2020. — KK

Better fridge magnets

These powerful little Poffattr magnets are useful for attaching notes to the refrigerator, but they are equally good for keeping my car cover from blowing off in the wind. The handles that make them easy to pull off are a superior feature. — MF

Wildlife Cams

I think nature livestreams are the best corner of the Internet. Onlinesafari.tv has almost 100 wildlife cams online from around the world. You can search by type of animal or ecosystem. It’s always soothing to watch animals in their natural habitat. I was watching three bears roughhousing in a pond in Romania earlier. — CD

Best Science YouTube

Science explainers on YouTube are a whole new genre. My two favorite YouTube science explainers are Steve Mould and Derek Muller at Veritasium. Both take an unusual phenomenon and explain it using clever demos, visits to experts, and intricate experiments. Veritasium in particular will stage elaborate productions just to memorably demonstrate a single point. Veritasium excels at weighty counter-intuitive propositions such as “electricity doesn’t move”, while Steve Mould likes to start with small oddities and curiosities that have larger consequences. Both have been releasing videos for years and have deep archives of hundreds of visually compelling, fun explanations. — KK

09/3/23