Find what you didn’t know you were looking for
I love the serendipitous search results I get when using Marginalia. It is not equipped to answer questions and suggests that you “instead try to imagine some text that might appear in the website you are looking for, and search for that.” SEO-optimized sites are down-ranked and text-heavy sites are favored. If there is a concept or subject I am curious about this search engine will redirect me to blog posts and old personal websites — all of which are never disappointing and always interesting. It’s given me such a larger window to the internet and I hope it never goes away. — CD

Master craft teaching
Adam Savage, of Mythbuster fame, is the consummate maker. I carefully follow his youtube channel, Adam Savage’s Tested, as he and his team make complicated props and unexpected odd projects. Every couple of days he will post a maker video of some sort. Adam is extraordinary in his world-class, wide-ranging craftsmanship (sewing, welding, painting, machining, woodwork, etc.) and his enthusiasm and ability to teach is stellar. I always learn something. It’s the first thing I watch at the end of the day. — KK

Text decoder
Here is one way I used to analyze my own writing that is fun, somewhat useful, and very pretty. It’s a web tool that removes all the letters of your text and leaves only the punctuation. You get a skeleton pattern of your hints and nudges in a block of symbols. Devised by Wired writer Clive Thompson, this small tool is best used after reading Thompson’s short explanation, What I Learned About My Writing By Seeing Only The Punctuation. (A link to the tool is within. Of course it can be used to analyze any other piece of text written by anyone.) I learned the most by comparing many of my different posts and pieces to see what varied. — KK

Better than an apron
The reason I dislike aprons is that they don’t cover the whole of my shirt, so grease droplets are likely to stain my sleeves and collar. I bought this short sleeve chef’s coat that buttons up to my neck. Whenever I am cooking or eating, I wear it. The idea of wearing it to restaurants is appealing to me, but my wife is not a fan of the idea. — MF

How to choose the right wall anchor
When hanging a picture, what is the best wall anchor to use? A cabinet? A shelf? It depends on several factors, including the weight of the item you are installing and the type of wall you have. Fine Woodworking’s article on choosing the right wall anchors is about as fascinating as an article about wall anchors can be. It’s worth bookmarking for future reference. — MF

Productive hacks visual
I will never hesitate to click on an article about productivity, because I always hope to discover at least one new way of looking at things. Here is an infographic titled How to Be Productive. In this case, it was “Assume you are right, when in doubt. Decisive is productive.” That makes sense to me. — CD

-- Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson 10/17/21