ZD 24.37: Annual Gift Guide
Black Friday is noisy. Here are our favorite buying guides for the occasion.
In this issue: Reversal of trust, good enough AI prompting, gamifying productivity, American productivity 🚀🚀, the 2024 Gift Guide
The Distilled Spirit
🔥 Revolt and Reversal of Trust ()
A lot of digital ink has been spilled around how podcasts and populism have overtaken traditional media and centrists of late. Many people underestimated the Roganosphere. Jeremiah Johnson explores the underlying reversal of trust beneath this sea change. Talking like regular people and not like Yale sociology professors matters.
🤖Good Enough Prompting ()
Zeitgeist Distilled favorite Ethan Mollick is back with a very strong guide about how to effectively, as a normal knowledge worker, get rolling with writing effective prompts. You don’t need to be a brilliant prompt engineer — but merely good enough and a bit patient to coax results out of modern foundational models.
🎯 Gamifying Productivity (Zapier Blog)
Zapier makes a great automation platform, they also happen to write a very good productivity blog with lots of great ideas. Gamification is a hack to help motivate yourself. Amanda Jackson presents some solid ideas about structuring your tasks for gamification and a few ideas about helpful applications to get you there.
📈 American Productivity 🚀🚀 ()
Underneath all of the other upheaval in the economy we are seeing a massive productivity boom in the US in particular. This boom is being driven not from the traditional manufacturing sector but from the service industry getting much more efficient. It appears that the US response to COVID was much more successful than in other high income countries.
The 2024 Zeitgeist Gift Guide
Seeking to shop for gifts with discerning taste? You have come to the right place! We have some guides from a variety of sources as well as a few personal recommendations. Welcome to the 2024 Zeitgeist Distilled Gift Guide!
From the Inbox
Many newsletters much more venerable than this one have published guides. They are a wonderful way to start your shopping expedition. Here are the best of the bunch if you are looking for the right thing for someone:
Michael Williams writes
. He has a keen eye for certain verticals of gifts like outdoors gear and watches that are not in my wheelhouse. His 2024 picks are perfect for the right person and a very good list to consult for high quality brands to keep in mind for other purchases.Jefferson Graham’s PhotowalksTV is a great way to keep up on the world of photography while seeing some interesting photography in the process. His 2024 gonzo gift guide is good for the photographer in your life. Beyond that most of it is generally useful computer gear suitable for many.
Entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss publishes a wide-ranging but well considered gift guide.
- is a new publication that profiles interesting people. They captured that and made a good top 10 list on top of their exhaustive guide.
Give the gift of subscription newsletters! Substack supports gift subscriptions — they are a wonderful way to give someone something a bit more meaningful than consumer electronics this season.
The Sketchplanator has a store where you can buy any sketchpalanation in a variety of mediums. Great for motivation and inspiration.
For the grillmaster in your life, look no farther than Amazing Ribs Grilling Gift Guides.
If any of the above did not cover it check out Wired’s Gift Guides. The venerable magazine still does a lot of things right, including first rate gear and shopping coverage.
⭐⭐ Updated post-Thanksgiving ⭐⭐
Here are some later-breaking guides that I thought were too good not to share.
If giving is not your thing, the Zvi has a great list of organizations worth supporting.
Austin Kleon has a great list of gifts for writers.
Nico Lumma loves listing five things. He shares a list of five solid gift ideas across books, running, fashion, cooking and tech.
Lenny does everything well, including holiday gift guides for the discerning Product Manager.
Happy Black Friday!
Our Suggestions
We know a few product categories here — like grilling and computer gear. Here are a few things we think are worth mentioning:
Indoor & Outdoor Cooking
If you are going big or splurging for yourself, get a PK 360. It isn’t cheap, but the results are worth the investment.
Grill Grates are a perfect addition to any grilling setup. Also have oven and pan options now.
The Thermapen ONE is the be-all, end-all of thermometers. If that is out of your range, an infrared thermometer is also an amazing kitchen tool and can be had for under $20.
Misen’s 12-inch Carbon Steel pan is the one you need.
Technology
Elgato Streamdecks are really useful additions to the office. There are a few form factors, and don’t miss the new usb hub adapter that makes it even more useful on your desk.
ICYMI, Apple enabled your iPhone to act as a camera for your mac. Your iPhone is a lot better than the fairly anemic built in model. Belkin makes this handy adapter that makes this very easy to use as a webcam atop any monitor.
Now that it has a touch of color the Remarkable Paper Pro has come into it’s own. It hits a sweet spot in terms of form factor and battery life while avoiding full-blown tablet distractions and complications. The vintage Remarkable 2 is a pretty good deal if you can forgo color.
One thing I wish I could recommend but I cannot figure out a mechanic to do so — it is hard to give the gift of AI. Short of setting up a professional-style workspace I can’t see a way to give a gift certificate. I’d guess a lot of people would have loved a ChatGPT or Claude gift card or a lump of Perplexity in the stocking but that is not to be. But if you are into DIY, rolling your own ChatGPT-based voice assistant might be a fun holiday project.
The Look
I am a strong believer in multitasking for a better you. So are many Americans. Activate Consulting’s 10th Annual Insight Report shows how many are living a 32 hour day. The document is enlightening and really worth the read.
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