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Rebooting is a newsletter about how we can use technology to take better care of ourselves.

Here’s something fun I revisited this week: my embarrassingly long list of grudges. The longer I stay cooped up inside, the more my priorities shift, and what used to keep me up at night now seems downright silly. What good does it do to get upset about something my professional nemesis said when I haven’t been able to go back to my apartment in over five weeks? Was it really a good use of my time to blast “Baby Shark” through my speakers every time my neighbors slammed the door? My therapist says no; with some hindsight, I’m inclined to agree.

Not all of my grudges are rooted in feuds with bullies or professional slights, though. Sometimes I just get miffed by someone taking me for a sucker. This was especially true in fifth grade, when Teddy stole my team’s idea for a class race.

After learning about simple machines, our teacher tasked us with working in teams to make some sort of vehicle out of straws, pins, and beads. The goal was to make something that, powered by middle schoolers’ resilient little lungs, could roll from one end of the classroom to another. My teammates, much like the rest of the room, were dedicated to winning, but foolishly opted for massive vehicles with too many bead-wheels and paper sails. Meanwhile, I was using their leftovers to make my own little vehicle, which ended up winning us the race, along with a night of no homework and a Butterfinger for each of us.

I’m not trying to pat myself on the back for seeing a tiny straw on the table and wanting to make a mini car out of it because it looked cute. Still, it turned out that a single bead pinned onto a tiny piece of plastic straw could zoom to the finish line faster than the tanks our competitors had made. Once I saw how slow the first few races were, I told my teammates to swap out their pirate-ship-style contraption for my uni-wheeler before our first race. Teddy, whose team had already gone, quickly caught onto what I’d realized, and made a bizzarro version of our machine, with an additional two wheels.

I should probably have been more bothered by the sheer fact that he was trying to cheat, but I was more upset by the notion that he’d applied the same thing I did, only by observing it working rather than thinking it through. I try not to sweat silly stuff like that anymore, but I still think about this story a lot, because it was probably the first time I was able to take a step back, assess why something wasn’t working, and improvise a solution on my own.

As I’ve found myself more worn out by being in isolation, it’s harder to read the books I was so excited to dive into earlier this year. Between working eight hours a day and staying on top of the news of the pandemic, it’s hard to want to put too much energy into anything else. In theory, I’m okay with taking this time to chill, but my mind ends up not feeling challenged, which makes me frustrated and on-edge. Instead of trying to force myself through books that I can always revisit when I’m in a better headspace, I’ve found leisurely puzzle games to be a great source of engagement that doesn’t take too much out of me.

🦝 Watch your step 🦝

Donut County has been my source of adorable catharsis for the last week or so. In this game, you watch as a city falls underground due to the antics of a band of cunning raccoons who own a donut shop.As each character tells their tale and tries to understand how their city collapsed, you play through puzzles that show it all in real-time. While the puzzles are challenging, they’re also fun and have enough charm to carry you through the game’s (spoiler alert) tough message.

🔎 Now you see me 🔍

Hidden Folks, which is basically Where’s Waldo for your iPhone, is a masterclass in how much you can do with very little. Even though the game is difficult, it’s a nice way to wind down and clear my mind because it doesn’t punish you in any way for taking your time to find each character or item. It’s actually kind of nice to just scroll around each level and watch the cute animations.

♣️ One life to live ♦️

Roguelike card games are probably my favorite types of games, even though there’s maybe a handful of them altogether. Meteorfall and Solitairica are two offshoots of that genre that I particularly enjoy. Think of Meteorfall like the card game War mixed with Magic the Gathering, and Solitairica like Solitaire with a little bit of combat and magic tossed in the mix. Sure, their roguelike nature means that if you die you have to start back at the beginning, but the characters in both games are adorable, and there’s enough variety that you can switch to different classes or decks to keep things from going stale.

♟ Shake it up ♟

You’ve probably played chess before. Maybe you loved it, maybe you hated it. Either way, Really Bad Chess throws out nearly every rule of the classic game and creates randomized board arrangements. You might end up in a game with nothing but rooks and queens, or even just a board of pawns. It sounds pretty bonkers (and it is!) but it’s a totally different take on chess that makes you look at the function of each game piece differently than you might on a standard board.

✈️ Bite-sized battles 🚁

Advanced Wars was my favorite game growing up, thanks to its rich battle system that made each battle as thought-provoking as it was exciting. Warbits takes some of the best parts of Advance Wars and blends it into a real-time strategy game filled with cute little robots who make funny quips throughout the campaign. Each battle gives you a set of troops and weaponry that you can send to take over enemy bases, and deploy more resources as the game goes on. Once you’ve wrapped up the campaign, you can start making your own maps, and even play with friends.

🏌🏼‍♀️ Go for a drive 🏌🏼‍♂️

Sometimes, you just wanna whack a ball across a vast, beautiful desert. Desert Golfing lets you do just that, and it’s a real treat.

📚 Good reads 📚

This absolutely wild thread that breaks down how much Tom Nook is actually worth: It’s easy to just see Tom Nook as an ambiguously rich tycoon, but seeing it broken down makes it abundantly clear that you should feel no guilt for not paying him back for your home loan. And he might just be cool with that. 

The app that wants you to treat self-care like a garden (Wired): Last week, I profiled Amber Discko, the developer behind Aloe Bud, a self-care app that feels like it was made for this moment. If you haven’t checked out the app, I highly recommend it, and the story of how and why they made it is a nice, uplifting break from the less great news going on right now.

Productivity is not working (Wired): At the beginning of my quarantine, I told myself I’d finish writing a story I’ve had in my head since 2016, I’d churn through my reading list, and maybe even pick up a new skill or two. Absolutely none of those things have happened, and for a while, that bummed me out! But this piece makes a really compelling case for why that mentality isn’t working, and why the message of “just work harder” has fallen so flat in the middle of a pandemic. 

The social media shame machine is in overdrive right now (Buzzfeed): Here’s the thing: this sucks for everyone. We’re all spending more time inside, away from friends and loved ones, than we were ever prepared to, and we’re watching things get pretty ugly around us. It’s hard not to be angry, confused, frustrated, and even scared. I feel all of those things about ten times a day. But in this piece, Anne Helen Petersen lays out why it can do more harm than good to let that vitriol get to us and follow us into our online interactions. 

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

Justin Theroux’s Instagram:  For the past week or so, thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I’ve been checking in on Justin and his adorable rescue dog, Kuma, who he just absolutely spoils in the most wholesome way with tasty-looking home-cooked meals that are a delight to look at. Justin’s also really vocal about adopting rescue animals, which I’m always for. Go give Kuma a few likes! 

As always, if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to say hello, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter.

My thanks to Medea Giordano for editing this issue.