Reviews

Endel is a platform that leverages AI and personal data-points to generate soundscapes that impact and enhance mental states. Popular use cases include productivity and focus, meditation and relaxation, and sleep. Soundscapes are personalized based on real-time inputs such as location, weather, heart rate, and circadian rhythm. I’ve been using it while I work for a few hours a day since January 2020. This post is part review and part exploration of generative music as a technology to augment mental states....

I de-Googled my life a few years back and now happily use Fastmail for all of my email needs. It’s the best email service I’ve found, and it’s mobile apps are great, but it lacks a first-party desktop app. While you can use Fastmail with any modern email client (IMAP is well supported), I didn’t like the privacy policies of many of them, which store your email content on remote servers indefinitely (in some cases, even following account purge)....

I’ve been using a new productivity tool for several weeks now that has positively impacted my output. It’s called Focusmate, and it’s a virtual co-working service. Many of us remote workers are familiar with co-working spaces — but covid19 has both whacked in-person attendance and also driven an enormous amount of people out of their workplaces and into their homes. So, what then, is virtual co-working? It’s a video call with a random partner....

Hey is a new email service from the team behind Basecamp. As a company, one could argue that Basecamp is better known for the way they think about work than the work itself. They’re opinionated people that build opinionated software. It’s without surprise then that Hey is a polarizing product. This team sat down and did what they’re known for, and that led to a significant rethinking of how people could (should?...