Hey from Dublin,
Welcome (back) to Stuff, I hope this Monday finds you safe and well wherever you are, thank YOU for joining me in our ongoing quest of curiosity.
We're at the end of a three-day weekend here in Ireland, with St Patrick lending his name to an extra day off. I managed some live music, and an afternoon at the Rugby, both of which were excellent.
This week we have the latest edition of the Stuff Mixtape, my monthly collection of tunes in my orbit. This month is an absolute banger, so I'll let you click through and stick that on before we get going with the list. Enjoy!
Help me out and share a link.
Thanks for being here, see you next Monday...
The Stuff Ten
Links to make us smarter and more super...
- Monday Motivation: Let this week be the one where you set better boundaries. I've turned off all work-related notifications out of hours, but there are more ways of setting work-life boundaries. Maybe hiring a fake assistant will help you say no, with less guilt.
- Your new superpower: I've written before about waking up early being a superpower, but here are 10 more ways for find more hours in every day.
- Essential Reading: I've been featuring random AI based apps (#8) for a few weeks now, but the field is changing very quickly. This week saw a step forward with the release of ChatGPT4. AI is transforming our world, and it's up to us to make sure it happens well.
- Take care: Which of your senses do you neglect? Take this short quiz to find out, I learned that I neglect my sense of touch. From the incredible Gretchen Rubin.
- TWIL: Scientists have figured out how to 3D print a heart - and this could change everything.
- Just take a breath: The one-sec app forces you to take a deep breath before you open a social media app. This could be a good step to reduce your FaceInstaTikSnap dependency. I'm trying it for a week.
- The largest man-made structure in the world: Another from the excellent Google Arts and Culture channel, a chance to walk the Great Wall of China. I was lucky enough to visit on a very cold day in 2005, and this tool is an excellent reminder of how beautiful it is.
- AI-ght: Dating by AI? Cupidbot.ai will do your swiping, and your chats FOR YOU, because nothing could ever go wrong with that idea! Microsoft have found a better use, building AI co-pilots into Microsoft 365 apps. The AI is coming, to help!
- Runway 71-right, and chill: Tune in to air-traffic control at a random airport, and then play some lo-fi beats underneath. An awesome chillout tool. Also, an amazing directory of underground radio stations from around the world, some excellent listening here.
- Finally: I wish I'd thought of this - can you beat my Dad at Scrabble?
Matt Rutherford
🎧 Aural Stuff
What's on the Stuff speakers this week?
🎧 This week - the only thing on my speakers is the new 11th Stuff mixtape!
Every month I keep a note of the great tracks I hear, and compile them into an old-fashioned mixtape, just for you.
We're on Edition 11 of these (archive), and I have an absolute tip-top collection for this month.
I open with a couple of class examples of the yé-yé trend of the 60's, Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Hardy before bringing things a little up to date with the excellent Metronomy who feature twice this month. There is some modern French weirdness from Laurent Bardianne and 'Oiseau'.
The mighty Orbital have been on heavy rotation, so I'm featuring their collaboration with Anna B Savage, who is also on her own with in: FLUX from the album of the same name.
The amazing Fred again... has remade one of his tracks with Mike Skinner from The Streets on vocals, and then we have a couple of dancefloor bangers from Oliver Sim, Dry Cleaning and the awesome Róisín Murphy. Fontaines DC cover the Nick Drak classic Cello Song.
Things start to wind down with Everything But the Girl, and some beauties from Erland Cooper and Peter Broderick. The Casinos and a classic collaboration between Johnny Cash and Nick Cave bring us home.
A mammoth collection, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it for you.
