A pretty simple, open-source web analytics platform that’s free for non-commercial use, available as a hosted and self-hosted service. One of its biggest selling points is the focus on privacy: GoatCounter doesn’t track users with unique identifiers and therefor doesn’t need a GDPR notice.

This Chrome extension combines some smart tab management (e.g. suspend inactive tabs, group related tabs together) and quick access tools, such as creating new calendar invites or search G Drive documents through shortcuts.

This is one of my favourites of recent suggestions for managing small communities: Comradery offers live chat, threaded posts, and weekly email digests – it intentionally removes a lot of complexity to make managing group comms less overwhelming. Hoping that the public release comes with Android and iOS apps.

Link Drop offers an email-based way to keep track of new links: “When you find a link that you don’t have time to read or explore, save it with the Link Drop browser extension to have it sent to your inbox for review later in the day.”

Practical Empathy →

For Collaboration and Creativity in Your Work

How a better understanding of empathy can lead to both product innovation and organisational success: “Conventional product development focuses on the solution. Empathy is a mindset that focuses on people, helping you to understand their thinking patterns and perspectives. Practical Empathy will show you how to gather and compare these patterns to make better decisions, improve your strategy, and collaborate successfully.”

One Eleven SWII →

Solar-powered watch

Reasonably priced at $75, the SWII is powered by a solar quartz movement that will last 4–6 months on a charge. As long as you wear it outside from time to time, you’re never going to run out of juice. The manufacturer One Eleven uses recycled plastics and steel for their cases and straps, solar movements to reduce toxic battery consumption, and recycled packaging materials. Different colours are available.

In case you don’t know: ‘cancelling someone’ in this context means publicly shaming a person or company – usually through social media – for doing something that is considered objectionable. There are valid reasons for and against calling out people for their behaviour, though I cannot help but feel like it’s yet another symptom of an increasingly disconnected, apathetic society. “The debate around cancel culture is partly about how we treat each other, and partly about frustration with the lack of real consequences for powerful people. ... Even though cancel culture seems to generate few lasting consequences for celebrities and their careers, some people seem to view it as part of a broader trend they find deeply disturbing: an inability to forgive and move on.”

Some brief thoughts about running tiny, frugal side projects that offer little chance of immediate monetary success. “Most importantly, though, [my side projects] were cheap to maintain. I was not hedging my livelihood on their success; I did not have investors who were requiring exponential growth. I could afford (morally and financially) to let them sit and grow slowly, collecting new users and functionality like a stone collects moss.”

Emmanuel Acho’s videos are a must-watch as part of your ongoing anti-racism education. In a succinct and captivating way he answers questions such as “How can I have white privilege if I’m not wealthy?”, or “Is racial profiling OK if Black people tend to commit more crimes?”, or this one from a 19-year-old girl from rural Alabama: “If black people can say the ‘N’ word, why can’t I?”