I'm all ears

As 30 creeps up on me, I’ve been working on a list of lessons I have yet to learn, in hopeful anticipation that I’ll be able to go into my next decade better than I started the last. So far, I have: other drivers will cut you off and that’s fine, make a list before going to the store, reorder things before you run out, and take a break when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

As much as I hate that I let a stranger ruin my day by not using their turn signal until they’re halfway into my lane, right now I’m more focused on learning to hit pause when I know I’m overwhelmed. It’s an easy thing to tell ourselves to do, but most of us have been trained to think our worth is somehow tied to our productivity; in that light, breaks seem counterintuitive to the notion of self-improvement. The problem is that without breaks, things tend to falter. For instance, if you’re feeling particularly pressed amidst your weekly chore dash, you may find yourself on a cross-city road trip to hunt down which Target you placed your curbside order at. No, just me?

I wish I could blame this on poor app design or a confusing amount of Targets existing in a small radius, but the truth is I could have spent five minutes figuring out the right address and correcting my course. I’d already spent most of the day doing tedious work, and there was more to be done when I got home, so I dragged out the errand to make pit stops at three different stores. Though not as pressing as my struggles with planning ahead, I’ve also been trying to be better about setting aside time to read. Lately, all my article and book reading has been reserved for that moment right before bed where I know I should be asleep, but I’m not quite tired enough yet. That would be fine if I retained any of it, but most of what I read is gone by the morning, so it ends up being a wasted attempt at something I genuinely enjoy doing. I’m trying to set aside more time throughout the day to do some reading—like when I need a break from repetitive work—but when I’m too stretched for time or have other things I’d like to work on, I’ve found turning my articles into mini audiobooks to be a good way to stay caught up without having to set aside time during the day.

Lend an ear

If you’re familiar with audiobooks, or you enjoy a good narrative podcast or two, text-to-speech articles won’t feel too unfamiliar to you. They won’t sound as natural or engaging as a book narrated by a talented voice actor, but it’ll get the job done, and you can breeze through your Pocket queue as you doodle the night away or sweep and mop the floors.

Speaking of Pocket, the service’s article narration is my favorite way to tune in. The robotic voices sound more natural than Siri or Google Assistant and it lets you easily move to the next article in your queue once you’re done, so you don’t have to fuss around too much if you’re on your commute or trying to focus on something else. You can even toggle the narration speed.

It’s worth noting that Instapaper offers text-to-speech as well, but they don’t sound quite as good as Pocket’s custom voices. Pocket’s listening features are also free, while Instapaper locks theirs behind the premium subscription. Instapaper still has its merits, like custom Kindle digests and a cleaner interface, but Pocket’s the way to go for text-to-speech.

If you’d rather not rely on a service like Pocket or Instapaper to read your articles to you, there’s Voice Aloud Reader, which is available for iOS. It’s not as elegant—if you want to read an article you have to paste the link into the in-app browser—and background playback is locked behind a one-time $9 in-app purchase. It’s nice that it’s not a subscription, but unless you’re interested in specific features like .epub ebook narration, Pocket’s free option still sounds the most like an actual person narrating to you.

It’s not a great substitute for sitting down and really digging into an article or book—you can’t take notes or copy text—but text-to-speech makes it convenient to catch up on your readings when you’re low on time. If you need to fit your reading in with other activities like cleaning, working out, doing menial tasks at work, or just catching up on the news during your morning stroll, turning your article queue into mini audiobooks may be the best way to catch you up to speed.

📚 Good Reads:

I called off my wedding. The internet will never forget (WIRED): If you read one thing this week, I highly recommend Lauren Goode’s vulnerable and moving piece about the ways technology companies harvest our data, devoid of any context, and how it prevents us from moving on. 

The Future of Remote Work is the Opposite of Lonely (Culture Study): We aren’t quite at the return to the office yet, but it seems we’re getting there. It’s easy to think that return must look like what came before, but Anne Helen Petersen argues that it doesn’t have to be. We could all benefit from the flexibility of visiting the office when needed, but being able to do the rest of our work as we tend to other things, such as family and friends, or errands and chores. 

🌐 Just Browsing: 

？Let’s all pour one out for Yahoo Answers, the kingmaker of the internet’s dumbest questions 🕵🏼‍♂️  A year with Jack Reacher 🎮  How e-sports became a source of hope in Brazil ⏭️  What does the end of the pandemic mean for people with OCD? 🚨 The unsettling surveillance of anti-Asian racism 👀 How Clearview AI made its way to thousands of law enforcement agencies 🍽  What is the dining room table for, really? 😭  How crying on TikTok sells books 📅  We’ve all hit a wall 🎁  Some details on those Amazon clapback ambassadors

💕 And now, here’s something we hope you’ll really like:

Last week, Apple Arcade got a pretty exciting update to its catalog, with a lineup of classic App Store games that either weren’t previously available, or were only available with one-time or in-app purchases. On Arcade, though, everything’s included in a single subscription. If you’ve never played Really Bad Chess, Threes, or want to learn a few new strategies from Chess.com, they’re all available, and you might still have a free trial you haven’t cashed in yet. 

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As always, if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to say hello, just reply to this email.

My thanks to Medea Giordano for editing this issue.