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

Tidy detergent

Laundry detergent sheets are a thing. Instead of pouring either powder or liquid into the tub, you drop in a napkin-like sheet of detergent. At home this makes no difference, but these tiny tidy sheets are exactly what you want when you travel. Their concentrated form takes up no room, they weigh less than an ounce, and there’s no possible mess – nothing to spill. I keep some small sheets in a baggie in my luggage. They work in a basin or in a machine. Many similar brands make laundry sheets. I use True Earth Eco-Strips ($13). — KK

New worldbuilding art

Every new tech generates new art forms. So I’ve been waiting for new art forms based on AI to arrive. One suggestion of a new AI art is a Instagram account that posts AI generated scenes from a unified fictional world. Somehow the artist(s) have figure out the prompts to explore this elaborate fiction consistently. (They are not the only one doing this; others have similar worlds, but theirs is the best so far.) This alternative world, manifested in detail, is zany, stunning, and oddly beautiful. Check out TheVisualDome for a hint of what is to come. — KK

ChatGPT writing aid

ChatGPT is a versatile chatbot that can perform various tasks, including answering questions, simplifying complex sentences, and summarizing articles. The “Awesome ChatGPT Prompts” repository offers a variety of text prompts that allow users to instruct ChatGPT to take on different personas, such as a travel guide, debate coach, chef, or dentist. The results are impressive, but it’s important to note that ChatGPT does not have full knowledge or understanding of the information it provides. It’s important to seek outside confirmation before acting on any advice it gives. — MF

Hand crank LED lantern

Last week, Southern California experienced a heavy rainstorm that caused a power outage in our area for 18 hours. We would have been in the dark without the Goal Zero Lighthouse 600 Camping Lantern. It features a bright and adjustable LED light, as well as a built-in lithium battery that can charge smartphones and other USB devices. In case of a power failure, the lantern can also be powered manually by turning a crank for one minute, which provides 10 minutes of illumination. — MF

AI recommendations for books

Good book recommendations are hard to come by. I’m rarely excited by what Goodreads or Amazon recommends. Right now I’m creating a reading list based on Readow.ai recommendations, which uses reviews from readers to give unbiased suggestions on what to read next. The more titles you add, the more personalized your matches will be. — CD

36 lessons from Buddhist monks

Cory Muscara meditated 15 hours a day for 6 months and wrote a list of 36 things he learned. Here’s a few of the insights that stood out to me or made me smile. — CD

• There are 3 layers to a moment: Your experience, your awareness of the experience, and your story about the experience. Be mindful of the story.
• The moment before letting go is often when we grip the hardest.
• There is no set of conditions that leads to lasting happiness. Lasting happiness doesn’t come from conditions; it comes from learning to flow with conditions.
• The more comfortable you become in your own skin, the less you need to manufacture the world around you for comfort.
• Your mind doesn’t wander. It moves toward what it finds most interesting. If you want to focus better, become more curious about what’s in front of you.
• You cannot practice non-attachment. You can only show your mind the suffering that attachment creates. When it sees this clearly, it will let go.
• Monks love to fart while they meditate. The wisdom of letting go expresses itself in many forms.

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

01/22/23