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Fast Ice Cream Maker

Unlike most ice cream makers that use a paddle to scrape solidified ice cream from the interior of a chilled drum, the Ninja Creami uses metal blades that rotate at high speed to shave frozen homemade mix into deliciously textured ice cream. I prepared vanilla ice cream sweetened with a touch of honey for my friends, and it was an instant success.One caveat: it’s loud when in operation. — MF

Oblique history

Youtube history is my latest obsession. There’s now a ton of very good history YT channels that tackle history in oblique and idiosyncratic ways. One of my favorite streams is ToldInStone. They tackle the kind of questions I’ve always had, but couldn’t find in books or other programs. Like: how fast was Rome mail? How did the ancients prove their identity? What were their kitchens and bathrooms like? Much further in the past, North02 tackles prehistory. What were humans like 1 million years ago, what kind of life in the Sahara when it was tropically green? And so many more! — KK

Tallying up the true costs of undocumented living

Probably the most personal recommendation I’ll ever make is La Cuenta, a weekly newsletter that explores the financial and personal costs of undocumented living in the U.S. As the first born child of two immigrant teenagers from Mexico, I experienced the mental and emotional toll firsthand, but this newsletter has been vital in my own cultural understanding and in challenging the stereotypes perpetuated by media and politics. The creators behind it are Antero Garcia, an associate professor at Stanford and Alix Dick, a filmmaker and human rights activist from LA. — CD

Beginner’s guide to practical AI

This substack posting called “How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide” is the best intro yet for using the new generative AI bots. Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton, has been testing all the current bots in depth, and his advice is perfect for those just starting to explore them. As of today the best FREE version of a chatbot is the “Creative” mode in Bing, by Microsoft. You can really use AIs to code stuff, even if the only language you know is “human.” Read this quick cheat sheet to get a real sense of what you can do in real life with these emerging tools. — KK

ChatGPT bot for BuyItForLife

BuyItForLife is a subreddit where people recommend and discuss high quality products that last a lifetime. This website is a ChatGPT interface that lets you ask questions about everything that’s ever been mentioned in the subreddit. Here are the results it gave me when I asked for the best spinner luggage. — MF

Mental and emotional resilience resources

Mental Supply is a collection of mental health tips specifically for startup founders, but I’m finding them very useful. Here’s one attributed to Gary Keller who wrote The ONE Thing: “Multitasking is often misunderstood as doing multiple tasks at the same time, but it actually refers to task switching. This incurs a time penalty, particularly with complex tasks. To be more efficient, focus on one task at a time.” There’s a lot of helpful advice available here for when you are feeling angry, burnt out, insecure or overwhelmed. — CD

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

04/9/23