You can tell that even the folks at Nimbus have trouble succinctly explaining what Nimbus is/does. I would describe it as an apps ecosystem that blends together features of a web clipper like Evernote, a document space like Notion, and a list manager like Trello. It is whatever you want it to be.

Essentially a more affordable Zapier copy-cat, Integrately connects a growing catalogue of apps to help you automate tasks. I’m a paying customer of Zapier and really like their product, though I find it bit pricy. It’s good to see more competitors entering that field, potentially having a positive effect on pricing.

A few years back, Lara Hogan wrote the book Demystifying Public Speaking. Now she made it available online, for free: “From choosing a topic and creating a presentation, to gathering and distilling feedback, to event-day prep. You’ll feel confident and equipped to step into the spotlight.”

Using “deep learning” (whatever that means), this app runs portrait photos you upload through a series of ‘drivers’ that apply a sequence of movements and gestures. What you get is a fascinating, slightly creepy animated version of the photo. I haven’t dug into the privacy policy but the company says it won’t share the original photos, nor the animated videos, with third parties.

The Humane Home →

Sustainable living guide

When I browsed through this book at a local shop recently, I was positively surprised that it covers more than your obligatory oat milk and soap-making recipes you’d expect to find in ‘green living’ books like this (although they are included too, of course). Some of the meatier topics include a chapter on more sustainable building/renovation materials or how to do an energy audit for your home.

What Happened to You? →

Conversations on trauma, resilience, and healing

A book that looks at our own and other people’s behaviour through the lens of good and bad experiences in the past. “Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking ‘What’s wrong with you?’ to ‘What happened to you?’”

You can always count on Angus Hervey/Future Crunch to pull you out of a hole with the hope rope. What a lovely way to shift your perspective! Please do read. “Ultimately, we have no way of judging whether we’re living through Collapse or Renewal. Future generations will decide that out for us. The only thing that matters is the part we play. We can choose which strand of that rope we belong to. We can add to its grand weave, in the way we treat other people, in the leaders we vote for, in the daily work we do, in the decisions we make about where to put our energy, and in the words that come out of our mouths.”

I discuss this piece in my intro. An essay that helps us reassess the importance we place on our career. “Since the Industrial Revolution launched a large subset of humanity into the illusion that we could conquer nature for our own purposes, linear ambition has been a kind of survival strategy. In recent decades, that’s certainly been true for privileged, knowledge-economy workers like me: We’re always trying to keep up in a world of work that seems to constantly get faster and expect more of us, leaving us too burned out and apathetic to deal with anything that doesn’t directly affect us or our families.” (Possible soft paywall)

This piece hit home. I don’t work long hours, but work still plays an outsized part of my identity. If this applies to you too, you probably want to read this. “The economists of the early 20th century did not foresee that work might evolve from a means of material production to a means of identity production. They failed to anticipate that, for the poor and middle class, work would remain a necessity; but for the college-educated elite, it would morph into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community. Call it workism.”

A fascinating photo essay that shows the illegal, brutalist buildings that were constructed by mafia bosses and are now decaying all over Italy’s south. “Mobsters changed the shape of Italian cities, ravaging landscapes with concrete to affirm their authority.”