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Designing your life
This Stanford TEDx talk, Designing Your Life, serves two purposes: in 25 minutes it introduces the modern method of “design thinking,” developed at the Stanford Design School, which is a powerful process for designing anything (a product, a house, a service, a city). This is the best succinct summary of this cool tool that all creators should know about.  Then this talk illuminates how you can apply this “design thinking” to designing your own life. The process maps well, and I realized that I have been using its principles as I deliberately design my life.  — KK

Get more aligned with your period
I’m upgraded my old period tracker for the Stardust Period Tracker (iOS only). It integrates science and astronomy to link my menstrual cycle to the moon cycles and makes “predictions” for my symptoms, cravings and moods, and you know what? It’s pretty spot on! I appreciate getting “day of” notifications warning me that my progesterone levels might be high and to avoid “the dark side” (aka mood swings). — CD

AirPods Pro
I bought Apple’s AirPods a couple of years ago and was fairly happy with them, but the battery life was disappointing. They would run out near the end of a one hour zoom meeting. I recently got the AirPods Pro and they not only have much better battery life (2.5+ hours of talk time) they also have excellent noise cancellation. I don’t need my big heavy Bose Noise canceling headphones any longer! — MF

Ambient chatter
As I write this, construction workers next door are nailing shingles on the roof. But I don’t hear the nail gun or the air compressor because I’m wearing my AirPods Pro and playing the sounds of coffee shop chatter at the Rainy Cafe website. You can mix in the sound of rain, too. The sound helps me concentrate. It’s better than silence. — MF

Not your mom’s cleaning hacks
A cleaning hack I just learned: cut the corner of the sponge I use solely for the cast iron vs all the other dishes. Found in The 30 Most Brilliant Cleaning Hacks of All Time. I guarantee you will find some tips you’ve never heard of before on this list, like microwaving your cleaning rag or using a mesh laundry bag in the dishwasher. — CD

Watching machines work
My guilty pleasure is watching people work, watching machines work, and watching people and machines work together. I can’t explain it. I am utterly hypnotized by repeating exactitude. My source for mesmerizing videos of machines at work is the twitter feed of Machine Pix.  —  KK

-- Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson 11/8/20