Another example of improving interfaces is Wikipedia. I'm thoroughly amazed by their visual editor.

Especially the part that automatically processes links into proper references without the usual manual hell of misplaced quotes and brackets.

Marvellous progress that finally makes editing Wikipedia articles a question of knowing things and finding sources, instead of maintaining strict bracket discipline.

I set this one on repeat when I need to get something done without looking away from the screen:

In case you're curious, this is the best book on tech support ever written:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Talk-Kids-Will-Listen/dp/1848123094

Tech support aside, I honestly think that the world becomes a better place each time a person finishes this book. It's not as much about talking to kids, as it is about talking to the kids in all of us.

Do your children, loved ones and the rest a favor and read it.

Telegram Stickers Essentials.

Here's what you need to properly communicate using stickers.

1. Fallout stuff. Especially 👍, 🎉 and 😝
https://telegram.me/addstickers/vault_boy

2. For the bearded part of your personality. 😎, 😐 and 💪
https://telegram.me/addstickers/borodist

3. For the furrier part. 😁, 😀, 😴https://telegram.me/addstickers/Stich (this pack could have easily been smaller, true)

4. And never, ever leave home without senor Pepe. Take the classic ones, not the silly glossy remakes. https://telegram.me/addstickers/rarepepes

You're all set. Compliment with these few from Vicky and Animals:

They asked me to test something about notifications. Let's see how that works. Meanwhile, enjoy this Lao Tzu, as translated by the brilliant Stephen Mitchell.

America was built on beautiful principles. Reality takes its toll, of course; and the contrast with those principles may make it seem more painful than elsewhere at times. But the beauty remains and gets even sweeter in its utopic coating.

Look, for example, at this finely-crafted decision by the Supreme Court on whether it is OK to use enhanced vision for surveillance without a warrant. True elegance and style:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-8508.ZO.html

(Spoiler: It's not. Can't fool the 4th amendment.)

Newsflash on the subway: "Five radical Islamists sentenced to 10 years in Bangladesh in connection with 2005 bombings"..

Never thought Bangladesh was such a hell for radical Islamists that they ship them there instead of prisons. 🤔

Hobos put their sleeping bags over subway ventilation grills in the downtown area. At -10° the warm air is steaming up visibly from the bodies scattered here and there. In some cases, the owner went away for a few minutes, leaving the sleeping bag behind – a crumpled pile.

Walking down these streets at night, I can't get rid of the feeling that I'm the guy from DOOM and recently discovered the rocket launcher. Or was it Quarantine?

Avoid News
by Rolf Dobelli
https://www.gwern.net/docs/culture/2010-dobelli.pdf

Amen.

Wanna watch a movie about Markus? Well, watch this one. Actually, watch this one even if you don't wanna watch a movie about Markus.

Hail, Caesar! (2016)
​​IMDB ▶️ Trailer 📽 Watch
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Actors: Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes

A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line.

Used to rip me to shreds, this one. Popped up on shuffle just now — to remind how good it is to be whole.

Not a single fragment of this film is original. Ironically, this also happens to be the case with many of the lives we people live. Although this meta-story does have a twist most of us will never go through (at least literally):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaKx_XzmBEw

Morphine is a nice extension that will help you stay focused on whatever you're doing:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/morphine/fbnpehpbojenlldmfcopeajkichnnjpo?hl=en

- You choose a list of websites that often distract you and get in the way of getting things done.
- The extension blocks them so you can't open them just like that.

Then comes the twist:
- While you're online, you accumulate "minutes" (by default you get 1 minute per 10 minutes spent doing something different).
- You can spend your stockpiled minutes to access websites on your blacklist for a while.
- When you open a blacklisted page, you can choose how much of your "saved time" you want to spend there.
- Once the allotted time runs out, the site becomes blocked again.

Very simple, very flexible, very useful.

Bonus: This extension only requires the rights to "read your browser history," which is important. Never install extensions that can "read and change all your data on the websites you visit."