Hola from Spain!
I hope Stuff this week finds you happy and well. Thanks for being here!
Last week, the most clicked link was about 'moving past your regrets', I hope that was helpful to you.
This week, I have a cracking list for you, and a terrific music recommendation. I'm also working on a new format for Stuff - a change is as good as a rest, and I hope next week I can unveil some new things for you!
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 up your prioritisation skills. When everything is important, how do you decide which to do first? Having some techniques and frameworks to hand will help you make a plan. This prioritizer tool is a superb way to supercharge a to-do list, it uses the well-established forced choice / paired comparison technique.
- Your new superpower: Make a lasting impression by learning the peak-end effect. In summary, when we remember an experience, we don't think about the 'average joy', we remember specific highlights. Memory fails us, and experiences that understand this can use our failing to their advantage, and create memorable events.
- Essential Reading: The top 5 regrets of the dying. Interestingly, none of them are 'I wish I spent more time at my desk'.
- Take care: Being on holiday means I'm back to walking 5km before breakfast each day. I guess I joined the religion of walking. I'm feeling better after just 6 days.
- TWIL: I spend a lot of time online, but this week I learned that the top 25 websites of 2023, weren't all the ones I expected.
- Bored? Here are 101 productive things to do if you're bored. Of course, the best thing you can do is browse my site for more stuff!
- Back to School: Mathigon is an excellent resource, explaining basic (and some scary) concepts of maths in a simple way. Beyond arithmetic, I'm not terrific at maths, and I'm using the site as a way to brush up on some of the things that make me nervous.
- AI-ght: ChatPDF is a clever one. Drag and Drop (or upload) a PDF and then use AI to 'chat' with the document. You can ask questions, or learn facts about the document very efficiently. Genius! Most of these new AI tools use LLM's - large language models, here is a very gentle explainer of how an LLM works, and why they aren't the solution for everything.
- Freeform - fun: Landlines is a cute & soothing Google Maps experiment for exploring the world. Draw a line, and watch a corresponding shape appear on the map.
- Finally: Timeguessr takes two of my favourite daily games and combines them. See if you can guess WHERE and WHEN five photographs were taken, I scored 39000 in my first go at the daily one, but I KNOW that you can do better.
Matt Rutherford
🎧 Aural Stuff
What's on the Stuff speakers this week?
🎧 My aural treat this week is the new album from Baxter Dury, I Thought I was Better than You.
It is a short but brilliant collection of laid back, louche pop & social commentary which delicately skewers some of the scene stereotypes of 2023.
It's an excellent follow up to The Night Chancers of 2020, and continues the theme well, with some Gainsbourg style references and some unapologetically London styling.
Highly recommended.
