A platform to share thoughts longer than a tweet – with private likes, subscriber counts and responses. The description really intrigues me because it says all of the right things. “It’s like long form Twitter, minus the status games.”

With an unassuming design, this mood tracker was created by a couple of doctors who work at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. You frequently answer the question ‘How am I feeling?’ through a simply colour-coded interface and add a short explanation. Over time, you create ‘mood reports’ that help you better understand your emotional responses.

As I describe in my intro, I tried this app to help me fight jet lag on my recent trip to Europe, and I think it works pretty well. You enter your flight details and the app creates a schedule for sleep, caffeine intake and light exposure 2–3 days before and after your trip.

Select the items in your fridge and get a list of recipes that you can cook with what you’ve got. Don’t miss this list of surprisingly handy cooking tips.

The Climate Book →

Greta’s book of facts & solutions

Launching today: Greta Thunberg’s new book is the ultimate resource for those wanting to better understand the facts about the climate crisis and the many (already available) solutions we have to overcome it. Proceeds of the book go to towards her foundation. “We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.”

Lamy Noto →

Robust, inexpensive pen

I’ve featured a lot of designer pens here in the past and bought a couple of them myself. Strangely, the only pen that so far has never let me down is also the least expensive one. It’s also the one I carry with me the most because of its light weight: The Lamy Noto looks great, feels robust, is reliable and – best of all – only costs about $15. I just picked up two more on sale in Germany for just €6 each.

This is one of the nicest, most rewarding pieces I’ve read on the idea of loving work – and working on love. “I’ve been told that defining love by its precondition of work is bleak, but I don’t actually think it is. What better thing is there to put your work into if not love? Unyoking your love from your job – fundamentally an economic transaction – frees up your energy to put work into your relationships and your community, inside the workplace and out. It also, crucially, frees you up to put work into loving and caring for yourself, and pursuing the things that make you more of who you are.”

I’m not a die-hard Apple fan, but the notion that Apple could – with it’s innovative, financial and market-influence might – do to e-bikes what it’s done to mobile phones is an exciting idea. There is certainly room and demand in the massively booming micro-mobility space. “There is no feasible path to net zero emissions that does not include a proliferation of light electric vehicles. And this presents Apple with the chance to do something it hasn’t done since the iPhone: make a category-defining product that also rewires how people relate to time and space.” (Possible soft paywall)

This critique of the bizarre The Line city-building project by Saudi Arabia is surprisingly enlightening. “Can anything so terrifyingly regimented be called a city? Or is this just more straight-line lunacy? After a century of largely disastrous, top-down, carboniferous city-building, have we learnt nothing? The relentless geometry is merely a clue to the power structure beneath. Power is key – not just the kind of city it shapes, but who wields it. ... As to the architecture, nothing about its jagged, glassy embrace invites dissent, disobedience or even choice. As a vision of ‘civilisational revolution’, especially from a country where human rights protesters are still routinely jailed, led by a prince suspected of sanctioning the murder of dissenting journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Istanbul embassy, it’s all rather chilling.” (Possible soft paywall)