Recommendations

Spreading the word about things I love.

Media

Books (follow me on StoryGraph)

• Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell (quotes I like)
• How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell (quotes I like)
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino (quotes I like)
• Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work by Daryl Fairweather
• Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon
• The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware

Not books

• Koreangry: there’s a lot to be angry about (and this zine makes me feel so seen)
• Wizard Zines and Julia Evans’ blog: exploring CS with curiosity and playfulness
• Scarleteen: sex ed for the real world, to share with all young people you ever encounter
• This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace: my favorite commencement speech

Career

• Recurse Center
• How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself (Formula + Examples)”
• The 40 Best Questions to Ask in an Interview — How to Go Deeper Than “What’s the Culture Like?”
• How to Speak by Patrick Winston
• The Most Dangerous Writing App
• FlowCV (resume writing app)
• Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer
• Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued
• Things to know about engineering levels

Personal finance

• Actual Budget: “a super fast and privacy-focused app for managing your finances” that uses envelope budgeting (like YNAB, but without the hefty subscription fee)
• Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties by Beth Kobliner
• If You Can: How Millenials Can Get Rich Slowly by William J. Bernstein
• The r/personalfinance wiki

Apps

• Obsidian: a simple, infinitely customizable Markdown-based text editor
• Arc browser: a web browser with the UI I was looking for to stay focused and organized on the internet (though it is Chrome-based)
• Unhook: Chrome extension that removes YouTube recommended and shorts
• Minimal LinkedIn: a Chrome extension that blocks the cluttery content
• Spark Email: email client with a UI I just love
• Maccy: a very handy clipboard manager for Mac
• Warp: a terminal with block-based UI for commands; it just makes sense!
• Todoist: a to-do app that has helped me stay organized since I was in high school
• Signal: simple, cross-platform, privacy-focused messaging and calling
• Proton Pass: a beautiful password manager by the Swiss privacy-focused company
• Cheerful Plants: a simple plant tracking app with a free version that doesn’t push the paid version
• TIDAL: a music streaming app with a much simpler and cleaner UI than others, supposedly pays the artists more per stream(?)
• Marginalia: an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial
• Unread: beautiful add-free RSS reader for Mac, iPhone, iPad

Health

Recipes

I am (slowly but surely) becoming more vegetarian and often vegan. Here are a few of my favorite recipes:

Mains

• Air Fryer Tempeh
• Baked Tempeh
• Miso Tofu
• Miso Salmon
• Butternut Squash Soup
• Doenjang Lentil Soup
• Lentil Kale Salad

Snacks

• Beet Hummus and other Kaiser lifestyle medicine recipes
• Chia seed pudding: literally just mix chia seeds with a plant-based milk of your choice and put it in the fridge overnight

Other

• Reebok Nano (training shoes)
• Lunette menstrual cup: super soft and comfy for both lounging and exercising, chemical-free medical-grade silicone, never have to buy pads/tampons, only have to empty it every 8 hours, cost-effective and eco-friendly in the long run (saves over $100/year by not buying disposable products and I’ve had mine since 2017!)
• Thinx period underwear: also super soft and comfy, cost-effective and eco-friendly in the long run, a reasonable amount of absorption capacity, a nice backup for when I don’t have my menstrual cup handy or an alternative on light days