This week on the blog, I’m diving into a treasure trove of discoveries, from the life-changing precision of the WD-40 Pen to the creative approach of Frenchy’s Low-Carb Pizza Crust for guilt-free indulgence. I’ve also stumbled across some thought-provoking reads, whether it’s challenging the inefficiencies of marketing with “mktg stinx” or exploring the concerning trends toward a cashless society. And for the creatives and professionals, there are gems like Mike’s Idea System 2.0 and the invaluable guide to mentoring for software engineers. Join me as I navigate through these fascinating insights and practical tips to spice up our lives!

• WD-40 Precision Pen On-The-Go: #promo Where have these been all my life????
• Turn your iPhone into a bedside clock with StandBy mode: On the widgets screen, the display is split in two so you can swipe up and down on them separately to scroll through the available widgets. You can pick from the weather forecast, your upcoming calendar appointments, and any active reminders.
• How to Set Up Your Home Office on Nearly Any Budget: Control clutter in your workspace with home office ideas that address your storage needs and work with your budget
• Mike’s Idea System 2.0 – The Sweet Setup: How to use an idea development system to prime the creative pump and set yourself up for success when it’s time to create.
• mktg stinx: There have been thousands of books and articles extolling the virtues of marketing and advertising. But I don’t think there has ever been one about how stupid and wasteful most of it is.

  Well, now there is.

• 2024 Guide to Mentoring for Software Engineers: Mentoring helps you grow, helps you grow others, and helps you level up. It’s a win-win-win. But, many people don’t know where or how to get started. This article will cover everything you need to know about finding someone to mentor and setting them up for success from start to finish.
• A Brief History of the U.S. Trying to Add Backdoors Into Encrypted Data: It’s been a weird week for America’s most valuable company—a firm whose tech products have such consumer goodwill they got away with forcing us to listen to…
• The end of money: Physical cash is dying—and you don’t need to be a conspiracist to worry about the consequences
• On Our Table: Frenchy’s Low-Carb Pizza Crust: We had to get creative with our approach so we could indulge in this guilty pleasure without all the guilt. That’s why we experimented with this low-carb crust, which has turned into a recipe our family uses weekly.
• Mathematicians finally solved Feynman’s “reverse sprinkler” problem: We might not need to “unwater” our lawns, but results could help control fluid flows.
• Million Dollar Weekend: #promo Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours [Kagan, Noah, Raz, Tahl]
• How To Afford a House These Days: Mr. Money Mustache
• Hermit crabs find new homes in plastic waste: Shell shortage or clever choice?: The crustaceans are making the most of what they find on the seafloor.
• make something to learn more about what’s inside you: + things that moved me
• Pica-Dry Longlife Automatic Pencil 3030: #promo
• 30 of the best fantasy novels of all time: Not all those who wander are lost
• A Self-Enforcing Protocol to Solve Gerrymandering: This is how I have my daughters split desserts. – “A third way is for one person to do the dividing, and for the other person to choose the half he wants.”
• 6 New Living Rooms That Stylishly Integrate a TV: Designers share the design details and strategies they used to create good-looking spaces that include a big screen
• Anki – powerful, intelligent flashcards: Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it’s a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.

  Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless.

• My favourite Git commit: I am personally a fan of detailed bug reports, but this is good too. — I like Git commit messages. Used well, I think they’re one of the most powerful tools available to document a codebase over its lifetime. I’d like to illustrate that by showing you my favourite ever Git commit.
• Why publishers need to wrest back control of content value chain: Publishers have a choice: watch as revenue is further eroded due to decisions beyond our control or create a new future built on direct value streams.