Hi !

Eid Mubarak basically means "blessed festival" and is the greeting used in the Islamic festival of Eid which happened last week to mark the end of Ramadan. This means I'm back to having way too many coffees and even going for brunch. It feels like I'm doing something illegal eating during the day! More on the week that was below...

As always, a small ask, if I may? If you have a friend who you think would enjoy the this email, maybe forward it on? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life
• Give - India & Palestine
• Gadgets & Tech- Instax instant photo camera
• Read - 2034: A Novel of the Next World War
• Watch - Data is Beautiful
• Quote - “If more information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs.”

Week in the life

Well with Eid happening last week, it was the official end of the fundraiser to help the homeless this year. We raised $1275 this year thanks to all of you! I'm waiting for Stripe to send me the total funds and I'll distribute it to the various charities. Thank you again for your support. Here's the final list of donors:

More updates if you're interested over on the blog...

Give

With all that is going on in the world at the moment, I thought I'd pause here and add some suggestions for donations to current crises in the world. If you have the means to contribute, it'd do a world of good.

• India - Currently the second most populous nation on the planet is going through one of the worst waves of the pandemic. As such, it's not ventilators that are low in numbers but basic oxygen supplies! The link should take you through to Unicef to donate.
• Palestine - after watching events unfold over the last few days of Ramadan, I'm speechless at how quickly violence has escalated. Palestine wasn't in the best of conditions in terms of infrastructure before hand and it's much worse now. The link should take you to Doctors without Borders to fund the work that they do, especially caring for the wounded.

Gadgets & Tech

Instax instant photo camera

https://amzn.to/3ot0f7K

This weeks tech is decidedly retro: an instant film camera! A few weeks ago, it was a friends birthday and like most people, I didn't know what to give him. I walked past my fridge and saw an instant photo that someone had taken of us both during a group trip and it made me realise just how little I go and print off my photos.

So this seemed like a decent present and sure enough it was a hit! The camera is decently cheap but the paper can get a bit pricey. If you're after a slightly more expensive camera but MUCH cheaper paper, check out the Canon version instead.

• Luminar AI - The quickest way of editing photos and getting amazing results. I showed someone the other day how a near final edit could be done in less than 90 seconds and they were blown away!
• Compact portable cutlery - Quick, easy and cheap portable cutlery to reduce plastic waste
• Aeropress Go - Make an awesome cup of coffee with an Aeropress that fits into a coffee cup!

Read

2034: A Novel of the Next World War

https://amzn.to/340gSyh

I mentioned this book just a few weeks ago and I've just finished it. It was far more enjoyable than any remotely military/war book I've ever read - mainly because I'm not really a fan of the genre.

If you're remotely curious about the mindset that countries may adopt during conflicts and the various events/accidents that may go into shaping world history, this is a good novel to get a feel.

And it's not that long to boot

Current book that I'm reading:

• The Beginning of Infinity - It's a dense book but so far has been insightful into the the nuances of what it means to be a species that acquires knowledge and the implications for that. I don't think I could recommend this for everyone, but for the right people, this would be one of their favourites.

Watch

Data is Beautiful (~3min)

https://youtu.be/Ok_AmPGyfcM

Ok you know I'm a sucker for good data visualisations and it turns out that there is a channel on Youtube that does just that. The video links to a graph showing how baby names have changed in the US over time, but there's a heap more on there channel from population growth, smart phone sales and even fast food.

If you like seeing data represented visually, I'm sure you'll end up watching a few of these.

Quote I'm pondering

“If more information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs.”

- Derek Sivers

This is a quote that I come back to over and over again. Whenever starting something new, I tend to over analyse and study up on things rather thean execute. The quote sums up the fact that after a bit of knowledge, it's the action that produces the results. This newsletter and the podcast is my attempt at executing with the minimum amount of knowledge required and so far, it's worked in getting me started.

Is there something you're working on where you're spending too long thinking and not enough doing?

That's all for another week, ,so stay safe and stay random!

- Raffy

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