Broadly Helpful/Interesting
with Self-Improvement Leaning

• Mark Manson (Blogger and Book Author. Wrote NYT Bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.)  
• Eric Barker (Blogger and Book Author. Wrote WSJ Bestseller Barking up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong.) 
• James Clear (Blogger and Book Author. Wrote NYT Bestseller Atomic Habits. Be sure not to miss his 3rd party Great Speeches section.) 
• Stephen Guise  (Blogger and Book Author. Wrote several very popular books on habits and How to be an imperfectionist. Interview with Brian Johnson regarding latter book.)
• Rich Roll Podcast (Podcaster, Book Author (have not read his book), Ultra Endurance Athlete. Great variety of guests. Kindness and honesty shine through.)
• Impact Theory Podcast with Tom Bilyeu (Very thoughtful interviewer - does lots of preparation. Has fascinating array of guests. Pretty "intense" guy.)
• Lex Fridman (AI, Machine Learning, and Robotics Researcher, Podcaster. Diverse guests, including in particular those related to AI, science, mathematics, and more. Kind, deeply open to "possibility", near zero hubris, loving, and appears (from my listening) to overlap with me in some deep ways re Affectionate Technology. Here he is being interviewed by Andrew Huberman in the Huberman Lab Podcast:  Dr. Lex Fridman: Machines, Creativity & Love)
• Blaz Kos (Creator of Agile Lean Life blog.)
• Jordan Peterson - an interview with him by Tom above. (Lecturer, Book Author, Speaker. Wrote the best-seller "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos". Extremely articulate, interesting, highly controversial character. When I have time, I am going to write a blog post on this matter, where, as several thoughtful people have said (though a tiny minority compared to those claiming he is either the 2nd coming of Christ, or the devil incarnate), the most interesting thing may not be Peterson himself, but society's wildly polarized reaction to him - as well as the near incomprehensible shallowness and misrepresentation evidenced in some of his early, prominent interviews. (He deserves to be challenged for what he says and believes, not for what he does not - and as viewers we deserve that too.) In the meantime, regardless of what you may have heard-of/think-of him — benevolent, wise, common-sense, compassionate, loving, savior ... or ... misogynistic, racist, right wing, patriarchal, Christian, fascist — I encourage listing to the above interview.)
• Sam Harris (Book Author, Speaker, Podcaster. Very clear and deep thinker — and into meditation. One of the members of "THE FOUR HORSEMEN The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution".)
• Tim Ferris (Book Author, Blogger, Podcaster. Wrote the best-seller 4-Hour Workweek. He is in the process of deep personal introspective and change; he discusses that in an interview on the Rich Roll Podcast.)
• Ken Honda (Book Author, Speaker, Counselor. Wrote Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money "... his writings bridge the topics of finance and self-help, focusing on creating and generating personal wealth and happiness through deeper self-honesty. He is the first person from Japan to be voted into the Transformational Leadership Council." He is deeply kind, human, and honest. Here is an interview of him on the Adam Markel podcast, and another The Zen Millionaire’s Secret to Creating Abundance | Ken Honda on Impact Theory.
• James Altucher (Book Author, Blogger, Podcaster, Business Guy. Wild, amazingly honest, and well worth your time. Been interviewed by many podcasters, including on Impact Theory.)
• (I am acutely aware I need to add Joe Rogan to this list, and will do so as soon as I listen to an episode or two of his. (And, well, he's sort of here now anyway...))
• Positive Thinking / Motivational Speakser/Writers etc. (And, for balance: Mark Manson (see above) Vigorously arguing against the entire Positive Thinking movement.)
  • Tony Robbins
  • Napoleon Hill (Book Think and Grow Rich.)
  • Zig Ziglar
  • Earl Nightingale (Presentation The Strangest Secret in the World.)

Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, and Healing: Teachers, Writers, Support

(Prior self help category includes element of this too but is typically more general in scope, including politics, business, athletics, and more.)

• Eckhart Tolle (Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.) 
• Jon Kabat Zinn (Early pioneer - MBSR and more. Lots of books.) 
• Tara Brach (Radical Compassion, Radical Acceptance, and more.)
• Pema Chödrön 
• Jack Kornfield (Nice interview in Tricycle magazine.) 
• Kristin Neff (Self Compassion) 
• Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche 
• Rick Carson - Taming Your Gremlin® (Personifies and extends consideration of negative self talk.)
• Brené Brown (The power of vulnerablity, and more.)
• More Specialized
  • Jonice Webb, Childhood Emotional Neglect 
  • CMC Foundation For Change: Helping starts with science and kindness. (See Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change by Jeffrey Foote & Carrie Wilkens.)
  • Engaging TED talk on depression by Andrew Solomon: ("The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality ...". Offers striking study showing depressed people see the world "more accurately.")
  • See also Johann Hari reference along with his TED talk at top of Guiding Principles page. (“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection.”) 
  • SMART: Self-Management And Recovery Training. (Respectful, supportive, secular, and useful program, with free online resources and local meetings. Deals with addictive behavior of all kinds - alcohol, eating, work, shopping, sex, gambling, etc.) 

Humor

• New Yorker Cartoons:
  • Delightful collision of contexts by Robert Leighton.
  • That fleeting moment... by Gahan Wilson.
  • Arrg ... by Frank Cotham.
  • XKCD "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." See for example #162, #1022, #208 (< will only make sense if you are familiar with Perl and Regular Expressions), #688.
• Cartoonist Dave Coverly.
• Chuck Norris Jokes/Facts and yet another compilation (e.g., out of many greats: "Chuck Norris counted to infinity… twice.")
• Great snippet on man-woman relationships by humorist Dave Barry
• Santa Physics (First main section is in my view by far the best.) 
• Programming Sucks ("Most people don’t even know what sysadmins do, but trust me, if they all took a lunch break at the same time they wouldn’t make it to the deli before you ran out of bullets protecting your canned goods from roving bands of mutants.") 
• Great BC Cartoon by John Hart Studios.

Poets

• Mary Oliver (sample poem)
• Derek Walcott (sample poem)

Visual Art: Primarily Techno/Kinetic

• Animusic (Wonderful virtual "musical instrument" sculptures.) 
• ART + COM (Beautiful computer-controlled kinetic artwork.  One example.) 
• Ivan Black (Fascinating kinetic geometric sculpture.) 
• Brunettes Shoot Blondes - Knock Knock Music Video (Amazing multi-iPhone/iPad animation/performance.) 
• David Černý (Computer controlled horizontally sliced head.) 
• Child Inside sculpture by Alexandr Milov (Touching and evocative.) 
• Chladni Patterns / Cymatics / Hans Jenny (Resonant patterns of particles on vibrating plate.) 
• Creative Machines (Their work includes high tech / kinetic / interactive art.) 
• Dancing Origamy (Good choreography.) 
• John Edmark (Intruiging geometric kinetic sculptures, often made largely out of wood.) 
• MC Escher 
• Ferrofluid clock 
• Paul Friedlander (Chromoscopic spinning string. See for example a handheld unit.) 
• Arthur Ganson (Whimsical, evocative, mechanical sculpture. (Chris Fitch, a periodic contributor to TechnoFrolics, does work in a somewhat similar vein.)) 
• Jenny Holzer (Work includes emotionally powerful haiku-like LED displays.) 
• Anthony Howe (Amazing kinetic wind sculptures. Article in My Modern Met.) 
• Theo Jansen (Sand "Creatures".) 
• Jeff Lieberman and Wondermachines and SOSO (Striking computer-controlled kinetic artwork.) 
• Paul Matisse (Kalliroscopes and more.) 
• Pevnick Design (Water droplet-based Graphical Waterfalls^®.) 
• Tim Prentice (Beautiful metallic kinetic wind sculptures.) 
• Projection Mapping 
• Bruce Shapiro. (Here is a wonderful computer controlled coffee table that draws patterns in the sand.) 
• Singapore large scale computer-controlled LED "Trees" and Walkway (Video) 
• Kenneth Snelson (Tensegrity structures.) 
• Ed Tannenbaum (Early pioneer in interactive museum video artworks. An example.) 
• Transformit (Beautiful stretch fabric structures, some with computer controlled lighting.) 
• Visothkakvei (Amazing doodles. Article in My Modern Met.)
• Wet Design (Choreographed laminar flow large scale water fountains.) 
• Websites, Magazines, and Organizations
• Leonardo (Been around a long time.  "Academic" leaning.) 
• My Modern Met (Diverse articles with photos.) 
• YLEM (Been around a long time. Includes list of artists with links.) 
• Collections/Collectors/Labs
• David Bermant Foundation (An early pioneering patron of techno-art. Collection now located at the Butler Museum of American Art. Includes my Dancing Trees choreographed iron dust piece.) 
• MIT Media Lab (Some stuff very cool. For example, see TRANSFORM from the Tangible Media Group.) 

Science, Math, Education, and Calculation

• TED talk "Do schools kill creativity?" by Sir Ken Robinson ("Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick. She's a dancer.") 
• Grant Sanderson / 3blue1brown (Fantastic math education videos - friendly, clear, playful, supportive, connective, highly visual. From the calculus intro "... my goal is for you to come away feeling you could have invented calculus yourself." ~90 min interview of Grant by Dave Perell.) 
• Khan Academy (Diverse, clear, blackboard-style explanations. (Have not personally reviewed any non-tech subjects.)) 
• Brilliant (Subscription-based website providing visually-engaging and educational interactive tools to help understand diverse technical subject.) 
• Better Explained (The website of Kalid Azad, created to to help document and provide improved, intuitive explanations for various technical concepts.) 
• Domain of Science (YouTube channel of Dominic Walliman. Here is a video I watched and enjoyed - The Map of Mathematics. I hope to watch The Map of Physics soon. And here is Can I Explain the Schrödinger Equation in 60 Seconds? And here is a TEDx talk, at the end of which he lists principles of good teaching.) 
• Richard Feynman (Nobel prize-winning physicist and entertainer. Lots of good stuff.) 
• Fabien Paillusson (Complex Matter Physicist, with willingness/interest in tackling quantum mechanics "meaning" questions. See for example 'Is Quantum Mechanics “Crazy enough”?') 
• Leonard Susskind (Stanford physicist and 'one of the Fathers of string theory'. I watched a Y Combinator interview Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered Questions in Physics that I quite enjoyed. From that I bumped into (but have yet to examine) his site Theoretical Minimum 'Fat advanced textbooks are not suitable to people who have no teacher to ask questions of, and the popular literature does not go deeply enough to satisfy these curious people.') 
• Quantum Mechanics: Two Rules and No Math by Christopher Monroe (3-1/2 minute video. Institute for Quantum Computing.) 
• Tibees / Toby Hendy (Need to think further how to characterize. Can say: a) "Environment" within which info presented, broadly speaking, very appealing. b) Idea of reviewing exams from major universities - which I have yet to have time to peruse, quite an interesting idea.) 
• Vijart (Mesmerizing, fun, high-energy math doodles/stories.) 
• Veritasium by Derek Muller (Engaging videos covering a wide range of math and science topics.) 
• Noam Chomsky (Education For Whom and For What? Very interesting, and at times horrifying, historical perspective/info.) 
• More Calculator / Seer Like
  • Wolfram Alpha (Too comprehensive to explain here - see site. If using for calculus etc., be sure you understand the expected form of the answer sufficiently to filter out elements above/beyond/sidewise from what you are looking for.) 
  • Google (Yes, does calculations, multi-equation plots, and more - just type into search bar, for example, "plot y=2^x+5, y=x^2".) 
• Websites, Magazines, and Organizations
  • Quanta Magazine (Diverse interesting science articles written for the (educated) layperson.) 

Business & Entrepreneurship

• Most anything by Peter Drucker - very insightful guy.
• Seth Godin - Ditto to above.
• "Positioning"
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
• Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It by April Dunford.
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber (Read in 2007 and found the idea of working On your business vs. In it very interesting and relevant. Not that I (yet) fixed that problem for myself/TechnoFrolics... Don't know what I would think if re-read now — particularly re style — but wanted to share nevertheless given importance of prior point alone.) 
• Pia Silva (Author of Badass Your Brand: The Impatient Entrepreneur's Guide to Turning Expertise into Profit. Core idea: Be authentic and niche.) 
• See Impact Theory above - many great interviews.
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey Moore.
• Stephan Thieringer (Weekly free online "Empower Me Coffee Chat" support group - useful, honest, encouraging.) 
• New Enterprise Factory / Stephen Brand (Very supportive of entrepreneurs and innovation. Stephen's title includes "Chief Imagination Officer".) 

Visionary

• Eric Drexler (Author of The Engines of Creation. Articulated much of what nano-technology might come to offer. Was involved in founding Foresight Institute.) 
• Yuval Noah Harari (Fascinating speaker/writer. The 2 Most Important Skills For the Rest Of Your Life interview with Tom at Impact Theory above. Book Sapiens (read Kindle sample so far).) 
• Ray Kurzweil (Books include The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. One core idea: People do not appreciate exponential growth.) 
• Brett Victor (Focused on computer UI design (in its deepest sense), with significant math and physics background.) 

Software Utilities (that I find useful, and that are not so common everyone has heard of)

• The Journal by David Michael (Great Windows journaling program. Powerful enough to be almost a complete office management/organization app - at least in terms of note-taking, TODOs, archiving, etc. Features include: Arbitrary-depth tree-structured organization; clickable links to any content - within journal, within office, or on Internet; search; keyword and topic tagging; calendar, alarms, timers; image and doodle support; and more.) 
• Tidy Tabs (Adds tabs like browsers have to any Windows application.) 
• dtSearch (Powerful indexed search engine that can find things like one word near another but not near a third, within terabytes of data, in seconds. Allows quickly finding items decades old, and where one has only vague recollection of details.) 
• Image Eye (No border image viewer.) 

Why Did I Post This Page?

I made a committment to myself in 2021 to get more of what I have considered, created, etc., out into the world. I chose this path because what I am certain of is that if it all stays substantially private, any value it may have is substantially lost. This page is one small part of that process.

In aggregate, this compendium provides a window onto some of what engages me personally (should such a thing be of interest, vs. something to flee... ;-).

(I must admit to being somewhat pained posting this page, due to leaving out 1000x more than I am including - that I know about that is, and 10⁹x more that I don't... I will be adding more, including extended summary text of existing and future entries, if/as I am able to find time.)

More ...

• If you ever doubt the deep interconnection between mind and body, read this fascinating New York Times article.
• I recently became aware of the great harm being done by core elements of the misdemeanor system in the USA, and believe it is important to share as a first step to change. (Interview in the Harvard Gazette of Alexandra Natapoff, professor, lawyer, and author of book Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal (on my to-read list). And short video on the same topic: Harvard Law School Faculty Voices | Alexandra Natapoff on how our massive misdemeanor system makes America more unequal.)