It's almost December?!

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. OK GO do it again — Another incredible music video. Shot in just 4.2 seconds, I imagine the preparation included a lot of maths.
    
2. I have no idea where I found this site, but I'm glad I found it. LightNote is packed with interactive lessons on music theory. It explains tricky concepts in a clear and concise way. It looks great too, which is always a bonus.
    
3. Another cool interactive site — Google's A.I Experiments is a place to explore machine learning through a series of simple and entertaining experiments. Quick Draw (which I'm TERRIBLE at) and The Infinite Drum Machine are my favourites.
    
4. "The best way that we can grow our intelligence is to embrace tasks where we might struggle and fail." Sal Khan of Khan Academy on the growth vs fixed mindset, including an important reminder "You can learn anything".
    
5. It's not often that an advert gets me feeling Christmassy. However, Wes Anderson's very Wes Anderson H&M advert did just that. It's put a smile on my face each time I've watched it. 

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive future posts or check out my previous Five Things posts.

Thought for the day

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. An excellent exploration of The History Of Rhythm from the BBC World Service. As a rhythm nerd, I loved this!
    
2. "Change what you know, change what you believe, and you change the actions. Learn to see, to understand, to have patience, and you learn to be the kind of person who can make a difference." — Education is the answer
    
3. A while ago, I deleted Facebook and Twitter from my phone in an attempt to reduce the effect of external events on my day and mood. The temptation to check them was always too much for me. My next goal is to quit paying attention to the news at all.. which won't be easy. — Want to Really Make America Great Again? Stop Reading the News
    
4. I'd never really considered how much sound influences the design of our manmade surroundings. 99 Percent Invisible's episode on The Evolution of Architectural Acoustics was really fascinating.
    
5. "How did the day pass? I didn’t even feel it passing; it stole away from me and escaped." How to get important things done.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive future posts or check out my previous Five Things posts.

Fly

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. A fascinating conversation with Pedro Domingos on artificial intelligence and machine learning. His thoughts on why white collar jobs are more threatened by AI than blue collar jobs are particularly interesting.
    
2. Derek Sivers on how to be useful to others [1m 22s]. Food for thought and a really cool animation.
    
3. More food for thought from Ryan Holiday — Tell me who you spend your time with, and I will tell you who you are. If you aren't familiar with Ryan's work check out his books Ego Is The Enemy and The Obstacle Is The Way. Both are excellent.
    
4. The greatest rock band on earth. 1000 musicians perform David Bowie's Rebel Rebel.
    
5. Finland has plans that will make it the first country in the world to get rid of all school subjects and move towards a model of studying events and topics in an interdisciplinary format. I'm so excited by this idea. It's crazy how little schooling has changed in the last 100+ years and time it's brought into the 21st century. Go Finland!

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

A Walk In The Park

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. Note To Self is one of my new favourite podcasts. It's a technology podcast focused on "being human" in the digital age. Their two most recent podcasts Mindfulness on Demand and Come and Sit with Marina Abramović were great.
    
2. Talking of being human, watch this... Can We Auto-Correct Humanity? (3m 27s). It might make your day a little better.
    
3. Everyone likes being comfortable, but it's not always what's best for us — The Healthy Uncomfortable.
    
4. You might not have heard of the term McMansion, but you've probably seen one. A recent episode of 99 Percent Invisible did a great job explaining what makes them so terrible. I don't think I'll be able to look at certain buildings in the same way again. For a more in depth (and hilariously snarky) look at these monstrosities check out the blog McMansion Hell.
    
5. On reading a couple of Wait But Why posts earlier this week, I was reminded of a great Anne Dillard quote... "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives". The posts in question, Your Life in Weeks and 100 Blocks a Day, reimagine life and time as a series of blocks, and ask the simple question: How do you use your blocks?

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

Live well

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. The new series of Black Mirror on Netflix is excellent and quite sinister at times. It might just make you rethink how you use the internet and technology!
    
2. I really enjoyed Jon Ronson's new short book The Elephant In The Room. It's a quick read on the Trump campaign, conspiracy-theorist-extraordinaire Alex Jones and the alt-right. I'm a big fan of Jon Ronson's writing. If you haven't read The Psychopath Test already, I'd recommend that too.
    
3. Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs via (one of my favourite places on the internet) Brain Pickings. His thoughts on creativity and the cross-pollination of ideas are worth reflecting on.
    
4. "For as long as we've been keeping records, human beings have been on alert for the differences that divide us. Then we fixate on those differences, amplifying them, ascribing all sorts of irrelevant behaviors to them. Until, the next thing you know, we start referring to, 'those people.'" Differences by Seth Godin.
    
5. A fun perspective on AI and robotics. I particularly like the Robert Heinlein quote towards the end — What can people do better than machines? The view from 1951.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.