Noor describes itself as “a team collaboration and chat application designed for a balance between uninterrupted deep work and intense bursts of collaboration”. It’s clearly trying to compete with Slack, although the website could do a better job explaining the app’s unique features. I like the emphasis of the team behind the app being ‘in it for the long haul’ and wanting to build a sustainable business funded by users.

If you take notes during video calls and don’t want everyone else to hear your keyboard’s clacking sounds, Unclack will automatically mute your microphone while you type.

Calcul.io is a place where you can quickly dump numbers for basic arithmetic but also advanced calculus. It understands variables, unit conversions and much more.

I should state clearly here that I support and pay for multiple online publications. However, I also get frustrated when I can’t access that one Medium article I want to read every 6 months. This Chrome/Firefox extension works in ‘developer mode’ of your browser and automatically unlocks a long list of websites. (Although, for me the extension mysteriously disappears again after a browser restart.)

The Evolved Nest →

Nature’s way of parenting & caregiving

A fascinating look into parenting in the natural world, offering lessons on connection, community and nurturing that make us reexamine our own system of raising children. You’ll learn about different animals’ parenting models, such as how wolves build an internal moral compass or how octopuses develop emotional and social intelligence. Along the way, enjoy beautiful illustrations and compelling scientific facts, and explore concepts from neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary biology.

Other Means →

Indie cycling magazine

A beautiful, thread-sewn indie print magazine with a mission to tell stories and capture rides that share the human side of cycling. The latest (second) issue takes you on cycling adventures to Scandinavia, Italy, New York and Spain among many other places. Ships from Germany. Friends of DD enjoy a 10% discount. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

This is kind of a summary of Jonathan Haidt’s newest book (see DD281) on the devastating impact smart phones have on Gen Z. It’s an illuminating and unsettling read worth your time – especially if you have (or are planning to have) children that are growing up around mobile devices. “This rerouting of enculturating content has created a generation that is largely cut off from older generations and, to some extent, from the accumulated wisdom of humankind, including knowledge about how to live a flourishing life. Adolescents spend less time steeped in their local or national culture. They are coming of age in a confusing, placeless, ahistorical maelstrom of 30-second stories curated by algorithms designed to mesmerize them.” (Paywalled – free archived view)

Nat Eliason argues that in our over-optimised modern lives we have atomised too many activities into separate ‘functions’ that leave us unfulfilled. We ought to blend working, eating, exercising, socialising, etc for a much richer, gratifying experience. “Instead of looking at some problem like “I don’t see enough friends,” or “I don’t work out enough,” or “I don’t have enough fun,” and then trying to find time to fit those priorities into, we should see how we can incorporate them into what we’re already doing. Could you make your workout less perfectly optimized so you can do it with friends? Can you loosen the reigns on your Super Duper Productive Routine to hang at a coffee shop with friends for a few hours a week? And for the love of God, can you please stop drinking fucking Huel or Soylent at your desk and talk to someone instead.”

If you need a cheer-me-up, here are 1600 people in a Brisbane concert hall, singing Radiohead’s hit song and reaffirming your belief in the joy of human connection and togetherness. For more songs and locations, see the Pub Choir’s best-of.