Anything You Can “Ok Google”, “Learn to Love Doubt” and Career Advice for All Ages
The origins of life on earth when procrastination becomes a real problem, a gospel of doubt, a complete list of OK Google commands, Mac gaming and more are all in this week’s Lifehacker Brain Buffet.
When procrastination is a real problem
This Unclutterer article on procrastination got me hooked . This is a helpful reminder to never procrastinate when it comes to proper health and medical care. Predictable procrastination jokes aside, your health is one area that deserves your close attention. From the work:
I became aware of this when my dear friend (who tends to postpone visits to doctors) had problems, due to which she was admitted to the hospital. If she had waited one more day to seek help, she might very well have died. Luckily, she’s fine now.
And in this respect I also made my mistake. When I had mild leg pain last year, my doctor said it could be muscle tension (treated with physical therapy) or a hip problem (diagnosed with X-ray). But I postponed the X-ray – and of course it was a hip problem. I am now scheduled for hip replacement surgery, but I could have avoided several months of pain if I had had an X-ray done earlier, especially when physiotherapy didn’t seem to have helped.
This is a simple example, but a good reminder, and should be borne in mind, keeping in mind that often people put off dealing with health issues only to find themselves in an unavoidable situation that is much worse than it should have been. Get tested, see a doctor .
While I’m on the subject of Unclutterer, you may know Erin Doland as the mastermind behind the blog. I love her new book, Never Too Busy to Get Rid of Clutter (and I hope to revisit it here soon), and I think you guys will have fun too if you want me to read right away. [ via Unclutterer ]
Gospel of doubt
In this TED talk, Casey Gerald shares how, over the course of his life, the various things that he was sure – even completely convinced they would happen – one after the other, have either completely failed or are more complex than he imagined. And that’s not bad at all.
During his talk (18 minutes, so set aside a little time, but it’s worth it – if you don’t have time, read the transcript here ), he explains how these failures taught him the value of doubt, the importance of asking questions, and how important it is to challenge your beliefs. for the process of critical thinking and change . From his faith to a trip to Washington as a prominent political contributor, he explains how he came to learn how to challenge everything, including and especially his own beliefs, and how we can all learn to do the same. [ via Ted ]
Complete List of “Ok Google” Commands
Android users, myself included, are probably already used to saying “Ok Google” to do whatever they want with our phones. A simple internet search? Certainly. Check the weather? You are placing your bet. Add reminders and alarms? All the time. But of course, that’s far from the full power available, and CNet has a perfectly comprehensive list of commands that you can speak out loud to your Android phone right now.
From silly questions like “What does the fox say?” (which brings up the video with the same meme) to open certain apps on your phone or even navigate to certain websites, there are actually tons of features on the list that you might not know or remember that will help you get everything done without fiddling with the keyboard with your thumbs. Some more interesting examples from the list:
- Show me the trailer for [movie title].
- Show me the video [random idea]. Example: “Show me a video of someone opening a can without an opener.”
- Find out which song is playing. What is this song? or who is it?
- Where is [company name or location]?
- How do I get to [destination] [on foot, bike, bus, train, etc.]?
- Define [word].
- Synonyms for [word].
- Etymology [word].
These are just a few, and the list is long and complete. [ via CNet ]
Inmates, or the Origins of Complex Life on Earth
The Radiolab podcast this week was a fun ride for anyone interested in science, especially evolutionary biology and the history of life on Earth.
The show begins by explaining that while there are many theories about how life “originated” on Earth and how this is the subject of other discussions, there is a kind of “black hole” in biology where life on Earth looks like an extremely simple solitary – “Bags of chemicals” for billions of years are nothing like the complex cells we know about today. We all know the other end of history – bacteria, viruses, complex multicellular organisms – but how do we go from billions of years of simple chemical single-celled life to even complex bacteria with complex cellular structures?
Well, the story begins with the so-called “energy canyon” and one of the millions of chance encounters of two single-celled organisms that floated around in those early eons of life on Earth, and ultimately ends with us. [ via Radiolab ]
Career advice you could give yourself when you were young
What career advice would you give yourself early in the game? Maybe you are successfully moving up the career ladder or just graduating from college, but either way, you probably have the wisdom you’ve learned along the way. This Quora thread is full of interesting things to remember at any stage of your career, whether you’re just starting out or on the right track.
I especially like the offer to explore not only my skill area, but also focus on social and global news such as economics, politics, and other social issues. One of Maria Gorlatova’s answers reads:
Study economics and understand geopolitics. Studying engineering will teach you how the physical world works (and hurray!) Economics and geopolitics will teach you how non-physical forces shape the world.
I could not agree with this. Go through the entire thread to find out more, including Gorlatova’s advice to never hesitate to reach out to people who have advanced in your field for their thoughts and advice, and of course, another respondent’s advice to never listen to someone when they speak. you what you can and cannot. [ via Quora ]
Why do you sneeze when you walk into bright sunlight
It happened to all of us at one time or another – we leave an office or other similar room, a shaded room, into bright sunlight, even if it is warm in both places, or cool inside and warm outside, and boom – we sneeze. Why did it happen?This video from Mental Floss explains what happens in our bodies when we experience the so-called light reflex of sneezing , or rather the prevailing scientific theories. [ viaMental Floss ]
Great Mac games sorted by system requirement or genre
Long gone are the days when you said “Mac games” and someone said, “What about Photoshop?” While Mac owners face certain issues with gaming on their platforms – some of which are best resolved by simply installing Windows and Boot Camping on them when they want to play – many of the best recent ones have been released for OS X. games as well as Windows, and the numbers are steadily increasing.
Our friends at Kotaku have their own list of the best Mac games , but this Mac Gamer HQ list has about a hundred games to choose from, all with filtering options by title, genre, and best of all, system requirements (high / medium / low .) So you can see which games you can play on this five-year-old MacBook Pro or which games will be sung on your new modern iMac. [ via Mac Gamer HQ ]
ThinkGeek April Fools’ Behind the Scenes
April Fools’ Day has come and gone, but one of the few highlights of the day is ThinkGeek’s “fake products”, and this year is no different. We’ve covered them all in our April Fools’ Spoiler , but as usual, the products themselves are fake … until the demand for them is so high that the company just needs to make them real. It will be a while before we see which ones do this clipping, but for now, this behind-the-scenes video compilation of these fake products and their videos will make your Monday start smiling, laughing. Oh, and full disclosure: I personally know a lot of the people in this video, and they’re all amazing people. Happy Monday everyone. [ via ThinkGeek ]
Everyone this week! If you have thought-provoking stories, interesting podcasts, eye-opening videos, or any other material that you think is perfect for this series, share them with us! You can send it to me by e-mail, leave it as a comment below, or send it in any way convenient for you. Your work may be in Brain Buffet next week.