5 great articles from 2023 that everyone should read

I read a lot of articles for my newsletter and today I want to share with you these 5 mind blowing pieces. At the end of the post you will find 3 more great articles which are older than ’23. Let’s go.

The article “Books as Toys” by Austin Kleon discusses the idea of treating books not just as sources of information or entertainment, but as physical objects that can be interacted with and enjoyed in a playful manner. 

This one discusses the concept of authenticity and the importance of being true to oneself.

The piece suggests that true financial freedom comes not just from having money, but from having the ability to live life on one’s own terms without the burden of others’ expectations or judgments about one’s wealth.

This article invites readers to join a “secret society”, which is dedicated to conducting small, informal experiments to better understand human nature and society. The author encourages participants to engage in simple, everyday experiments that challenge assumptions and explore social dynamics, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and observation in everyday life.

There’s a theory I like that suggests why the nineteenth century is so rich in ghost stories and hauntings. Carbon monoxide poisoning from gas lamps.

BONUS (some of these are long before 2023, but they are still gold):

A reminder to think

In today’s world, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, bombarded by external stimuli. We’re constantly scrolling through our social media feeds, checking our email, and responding to notifications, leaving little time for quiet reflection and introspection. However, taking time to pause and think about our goals, aspirations, and dreams is crucial for personal growth and success.

Just like a gardener carefully tends to their crops, we must nurture our dreams by giving them our attention and focus. It’s easy to let our dreams get lost in the weeds of daily life, but by making time to consciously think about them, we give them the nourishment they need to grow and flourish.

Even a few minutes of dedicated thought each day can make a significant difference. Take a moment to close your eyes, clear your mind, and visualize your goals. Imagine yourself achieving them, and feel the excitement and satisfaction that comes from reaching your full potential.

Remember, the world is full of people who dream big, but only a few actually take the time to make their dreams a reality. By making time for quiet reflection and intention setting, you put yourself ahead of the pack.

So, take a few minutes each day to pause, reflect, and dream. Your future self will thank you for it.

10 useful websites you probably don’t know about

Offliberty

Offliberty lets you access any online content without a permanent Internet connection. Today most websites are difficult to browse offline. If you have limited access to the Internet you can use Offliberty to browse any content later – being offline.

If the Internet bus visits your village only once a week or your grandma doesn’t let you use Internet more than 1 hour a day – Offliberty is for you.

PrintFriendly

PrintFriendly cleans and formats web pages for perfect print experience. PrintFriendly removes ads, navigation and web page junk, so you save paper and ink when you print. It’s free and easy to use. Perfect to use at home, the office, or whenever you need to print a web page.

10 Minute Mail

Maybe you want to sign up for a site which requires that you provide an e-mail address to send validation e-mail to. And maybe you don’t want to give up your real e-mail address and end up on a bunch of spam lists. 10 minute mail is nice and disposable. And it’s free.

Information is Beautiful

Founded by David McCandless, author of three bestselling infographics books, Information is Beautiful is dedicated to making sense of the world with graphics & data-visuals. They set out to explain, distill and clarify. All their visualizations are based on facts and data: constantly updated, revised and revisioned.

Motorpulse

Whether you are a petrol-head, a four-by-adventurer, an uber-urbanite or just want a car to get you from A-to-B, Motorpulse would love to know more about some of your views relating to cars.

Followupthen

The secret to leadership? Following up. Meet the world’s simplest email reminder and personal follow up assistant.

PDF Escape

A new way to open and edit PDF files online, PDFescape frees users from the typical software requirements for using the de facto document file format. Completely online, PDFescape requires no more than a modern internet browser and an active internet connection.

Marker.to

Have you ever used a marker pen for highlighting your paper documents? Marker.to will do the same for webpages! After you install a browser extension or bookmarklet and run Marker simply by clicking on the icon, you can highlight text on a website with your mouse.

Privnote

Have you ever wanted to send confidential information within your work environment, to family or friends, but were afraid to do so over the internet, because some malicious hacker could be spying on you? Privnote is a free web based service that allows you to send top secret notes over the internet. It’s fast, easy, and requires no password or user registration at all.

Random ORG

RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive online games, for scientific applications and for art and music. The service has existed since 1998 and was built by Dr Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland. Today, RANDOM.ORG is operated by Randomness and Integrity Services Ltd.

For more useful apps, websites and articles you can subscribe to my newsletter Rabbit Ideas.

How to regain your childlike curiosity

These days I turn my full attention to playing games with my 1-year old son. It amazes me how engrossed he is in the game of passing a small ball. Everything is new for him, everything makes him look with admiration. He crawls around the apartment and explores. I look at him while he makes that face when he connects the dots on how a thing works. It is absolutely fascinating to watch this process. And then it struck me: where did my curiosity go? Did I turn into a boring adult? Can I go back?

I read a lot of stuff on the topic and now I want to share with you my insights.

RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

First and foremost: be here and now. You can not be curious if you are doomscrolling on facebook or looking at instagram photos. Now you will argue that you are searching for inspiration and ideas on facebook. But you know what? Most of the content in fb is shared, which means that you can find it elsewhere on the internet. Social media is a tool for distraction, not concentration.

EXPERIMENT

Make everyday activities an experiment. Play with the settings on your coffee machine. Put more or less coffee/water, check the difference in the taste and write down the results. Refuel your car at a different gas stations and check if there is a difference in the driving. Put an additive and see if there is a difference. Detect the time you need to go from point A to point B. Install 10 weather apps and check which one is the most accurate in the course of a month. The list can go on and on, but you got the idea.

READ. A LOT.

You can find life changing ideas by reading a lot. Read everything – books, newsletters, blogs, magazines, newspapers. Do not limit yourself only on topics that interest you, find something new. Best option is to join your local library and just go through the shelves.

OPEN YOUR MIND

Bertrand Russell said it better than me:

Let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

TRY TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY

Search for an interesting fact. Check a word in different language. Ask someone who is an expert in a field. The more facts you devour, the bigger chance to connect the dots into a groundbreaking idea.

Forgetting that the child you were before lies somewhere deep in you can result in losing all your creativity and curiosity. But with a little self awareness and concentration you can regain the qualities you once had. Stay young. Stay curious.

10 useful apps you probably don’t know about

When we speak about useful smartphone apps there is a real chance you can miss something. So many apps are released everyday and it is impossible to try all of them. Below are some useful apps that you may have missed.

Bromite

Bromite is a Chromium fork with ad blocking and privacy enhancements. The main goal is to provide a no-clutter browsing experience without privacy-invasive features and with the addition of a fast ad-blocking engine. /Android

Super Status Bar

Super Status Bar adds useful tweaks to your status bar such as gestures, notification previews, and quick brightness & volume control. /Android

Sesame

Sesame is a powerful universal search on Android. It integrates with your launcher, learns from you, and makes hundreds of personal shortcuts. With Sesame universal search, everything is 1 or 2 taps away! /Android

Daylio

Keep a diary and capture your day without writing down a single word! You can create a daily entry in two taps – pick mood and activities. Daylio then crunches the data and displays it in stats, charts, and correlations. /Android, iOS

Drupe

There are many ways to communicate. Drupe brings both your contacts and communication apps together, getting rid of the hassle. /Android, iOS

Disa

Disa is your new messaging hub. Just one hub. Conversations from Telegram, Facebook and Text Messaging services can seamlessly be joined together, or disbanded within seconds. /Android, iOS coming soon

Workflow

Workflows combine a bunch of steps across apps into a single tap. Collect workflows to save time and effort every day. /iOS

Gyroscope

Gyroscope is not just a new app for your phone or watch. It is a new operating system for your entire body & mind. Set up your Health Score to get daily insights to understand and improve your longevity. /Android, iOS

Bear App

Bear is a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose. /iOS, MacOS

What3words

What3words divides the world into 3 meter squares and gave each square a unique combination of three words. It’s the easiest way to find and share exact locations. /Android, iOS

For more useful apps, websites and articles you can subscribe to my newsletter Rabbit Ideas.

3 things I learned after 3 years of running a newsletter

Three years ago, one chilly February morning I hit the post button and leaned back in my chair. On the screen in front of me was a simple title: Rabbit Ideas #001 It wasn’t the first time I try to start a newsletter, but I knew this time was different.

Actually, if you are a subscriber of my newsletter and like it, you have to thank my wife. She was the reason to start posting regularly every Sunday. Why? Because at first she didn’t believe I can be that persistent. When I think about it, she was right. Before Rabbit Ideas I never finished a project. But my motivation now was to prove her wrong. Three years later there are 160 issues published, more than 650 links shared and more than 700 subscribers reading my suggestions on the best websites, articles, tools and apps.

Let’s go to the serious part. The 3 points below are the most important things I learned so far running the newsletter.

The best ways to grow a subscriber list

I spent incredible amounts of time and money to add my newsletter in directories and advertise on google and twitter. Too broad. The best results actually came from cross promotions and advertising with other newsletters. It’s simple: when people read a newsletter and find another newsletter inside, they want to try it.

Who’s afraid of experiments?

For 3 years I made some really big changes in the way my newsletter looks and works. At first I was a little afraid of changes, because I didn’t know how my subscribers will react. But people actually like new things. And if you explain to them about the change and why you are doing it, they will understand.

People don’t owe you

People will always unsubscribe. They have the right to do it. I’ve been working to make sure that when someone unsubscribe, at least two people will replace him. I know that when you have a small audience every subscriber counts, but you should focus on bringing more people in, not just keep the current ones.

Now how can we end an article about newsletters in the best possible way? That’s right, by asking the readers to subscribe.

5 tips for a successful side hustle

I work full time and run a couple of side projects. If you are like me you know all the difficulties a side hustle can give you. If you have a family, a full time job and a side project, juggling between them can be a tiring experience. Below I will suggest some tips you can use to cope with these problems.

Set the right amount of time

We all have the same 24 hours a day. You work an 8 hours job and you do not want your family to forget who you are. So you have to really carefully calculate the maximum amount of time you can spend on your side project. If you have 1 hour a week, make it worth it.

Be persistent

I post a new issue of my newsletter every Sunday from Feb 9, 2020. I posted when I got COVID, I posted on the day of my wedding. I posted when my son was born. No excuses. Your audience have to know what to expect. If you post on random dates twice a year people won’t even remember how they got subscribed for your content at the first place.

Diversify your content

Nowadays simply running a newsletter or a blog is not really enough. You have to give your audience more value. Create a digital product to offer for free or with discount. Make an exclusive vlog or podcast to speak on a topic. Create a printable pdf. Possibilities are endless, you have to find what works best for your niche.

Do not give up

There will be times when you will want to give up. You will doubt that your project will ever be what you want it to be. Nobody will pay attention and nobody will care. But let me tell you something. There are 8 billion people in the world right now. It looks like this: 8 000 000 000. All of those people are your potential audience. Your readers, your listeners, your subscribers. They will find your project, and they will love it. Do. Not. Give. Up.

Steal from the successful

Steal ideas from the successful in your field. Find the best projects and see what you can use for your own. Take a good practice and make it even better. Nobody said that what works for others will work for you, but without trying you will never know.

These are my tips for turning your projects into a huge success. I wish you all to make your side hustle a full time job. This is what we are all fighting for.

It doesn’t have to be perfect

When I was a child I used to create things. A lot of things. I wrote a book for my best friend to read. I took inspiration from gaming magazines to create board games using the titles of famous computer games. I drew tens of mobile phone designs. I took cartons big enough to fit in and turned them into imaginable cars.

None of my undertakings were ready enough to be shared, but still I shared them with my friends gaining their authentic admiration. Back then it was enough.

These days things have changed. I hardly share my works with even my best friends. They are works in progress. Not ready. Not good enough. Not perfect. It is time for me to change this and maybe help a few insecure souls with my reason.

If you are creating something that you like and just keep it for yourself you are not a creator – you are an egoist. You have the whole internet available to promote your art. Do you really think that there is no one else on earth that will like your work, however unfinished it may be?

This probably won’t be my best article – I will post it anyway.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.