Recomendo

The Friendly Orange Glow/Woodworking DIY/Sokanu

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Recomendo: issue no. 73

Forgotten history
A book I recommend, The Friendly Orange Glow. I’ll just paraphrase the rave burb I wrote for it: “I love this deep unknown history. It’s an incredible tale of a rag-tag team of students inventing key technologies such as flat screens, instant messaging, networked games, blogging — in the 1960s and 1970s, several decades before Silicon Valley, Apple, Facebook. Then they were totally forgotten. Your mind will be blown.” — KK

Woodworking DIY channel
April Wilkerson is a woodworker and her YouTube channel is filled with her projects, like a chicken coop, a multipurpose garage storage station, a cedar fence, a walking cane, and more. She’s great at showing and explaining her work, and letting you see her mistakes and workarounds, which is very valuable. — MF

One-stop career center
The Sokanu Career Test is like a supercharged version of the one I took in high school. A 20-minute test will give you your top matches out of 800+ careers based on your personal interests, personality characteristics and ideal work environment. You also get info on degree paths, salary and links to job listings. — CD

Inexpensive upper body workout
In 2012 I bought an $18 pull-up bar that hangs from a door frame. When I started, I wasn’t able to do a single pull-up. After a week I could do one pull-up. A couple of months later I was able to do over 10 pull-ups. I still can. — MF

Person I am following
I follow Patrick Collison on Twitter. He posts regularly (but not obsessively), with a high-signal to noise ratio, a broad interest in the usual tech, science, and bookish things, but with the occasional quirk to keep me surprised. — KK

Cheap bedside alarm
I bought this small $10 clock so I could avoid looking at my phone in the morning. The alarm is progressive and the ticking is as close to silent as possible. There’s a button to illuminate the time in the dark and it doubles as a snooze button. Perfectly simple and useful. — CD

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-- Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson 12/17/17

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