This week we’re learning about the tools and tech we need to upgrade our lives in 2021, and helping us are Mark Frauenfelder and Kevin Kelly — hosts of the Cool Tools podcast and the Cool Tools blog. Listen to hear Mark and Kevin’s recommendations for what to get for the best work-from-home experience, their favourite new tech from 2020, and what they expect the future of work to look like post-pandemic.
Listen to The Upgrade above or find us in all the usual places podcasts are served, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify and iHeartRadio.
Highlights from this week’s episode
From the Mark Frauenfelder and Kevin Kelly interview:
On why you shouldn’t stress too much over choosing which software planning or communication tool to use:
I find that in the very beginning, when tools are being first invented, there’s a lot of variation and there’s lots of trade-offs between them. But over time they tend to converge. And in communication, in general, communication tools will exhibit a winner take all dynamic because of the benefits you have of having commonality. And then over time, like word processor, it’s going to converge to one or two.
Kevin Kelly on how he goes about selecting a physical tool:
I prefer to find things that are cheap and free in the beginning to figure out what I want from that and what I really want to continue [with] if I’m going to use it very often. And then as I use a tool like that or find it the quality where I can appreciate it, then I kind of move up into buying that lifetime tool. I don’t start with lifetime tools. That’s contrary to a lot of other people’s policy about tools as they kind of want the best. Why not get the very, very best that you can afford? And I’m saying, even if I could afford it, I don’t. I’ll start with the cheap as a strategy to kind of figure out what I want. At the same time, if I’m using a tool for a long time, then I definitely want to move up that.
To hear more of Mark and Kevin’s tips for finding the best tools, we recommend listening to the full episode.
Episode Transcript
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