Lately I’ve been experiencing personal advertising barrages. Sometimes, I actually buy a product online before realizing that I had been living in a fake information environment complete with fake AI-generated product reviews. What I want for myself right now is to hear more product reviews from real people. I’m not against earning money from affiliate links, but I will earn nothing from this post. Here’s what I’m using right now.
Sourdough Bread Baking gear kit – I got a kit with “bannetons” (if you’re not interested, don’t ask) back when I decided to get into sourdough baking. The appeal was the savings from buying it all in a bundle (i.e. “dough whisk,” etc.). The investment is worthwhile if you are going to make your own sourdough bread. As I wrote earlier, this is a big investment of time. I do not recommend starting the process at all if you will make homemade bread less than 5 times a year.
Homemade Driveway Pickleball Court – if you have a paved level driveway or large patio, you might be able to create a non-regulation-sized Pickleball court. It used to be that billionaires could have their own tennis court and the rest of us could have ping pong tables. Now there is a Third Thing. You will likely need to rig up nets as a backstop by piecing together sports gear meant for baseball backstops. The actual mid-court net can come cheap from Amazon (I went with 14 feet wide). A small Pickleball court is fun for children/teens, but adults will prefer going to a real court where you can hit the ball much harder. Pickleball facilities are appearing all over the country and many cities now provide free courts in parks and gyms.
Canvas LMS and New Quizzes – Samford University uses Canvas, and I have always liked the interface. Finally, in the year 2026, I have decided to build a new course using “New Quizzes” instead of Classic Quizzes. The rollout of this product has been so awkward, but if you are starting from scratch, Item Banks and “New Quizzes” works well now.
The book Misbehaving by Richard Thaler is about his career and the field of Behavioral Economics. I think anyone could learn from how the field evolves in the face of new evidence. It’s been helpful for me with my project on LLMs and financial decision making.
Codex – Thanks to Codex, I can finally do something teaching-related that ChatGPT had failed to do for me in summer of 2025. Codex can write straight to a subfolder on my computer, with coaching. For technical details, follow Aniket. What I used to say to people who wanted to “learn computer programming” is that it’s impossible to learn from reading books. Build something that you care about, even if it is just a tiny website. I would say the same for Codex. Use it to build something, even if that’s something for your personal life like a sourdough bread baking scheduling assistant.
Bluey – A Disney+ subscription is almost worth it for Bluey alone. It’s good for all ages. You can see how parents cope and thrive with two kids. (Mathematically, Bluey will not actually get us above replacement rate, despite the rumors, because it does not teach how to handle more than two kids. Take another beloved family movie: The Sound of Music. Do-re-mi! Where is the biological mother of those 7 children? She is dead.) Bluey is not overrated. Arguably we need Bluey more than ever to teach kids how to live now that parents are glued to Codex. An even better show is the original Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. I recommend introducing that very early. If you want your kid to be able to appreciate it, don’t let them do hyper-addictive screen time such as YouTube scrolling. Not all screen time is the same, continued…
Making the whole family share one iPad – I see certain apps as fine for kids in small doses. ABCMouse is good for young kids. Older kids can enjoy Minecraft, Donut County, and Monument Valley. Having only one iPad for the whole family is a pain, but it creates the kind of conflict that develops the kind of patience that you want in your kids. Just stick them on Bluey to learn how to share it.
Recreational Sports – I hear complaints about how much travel sports cost. Most cities still offer recreational sports. Your kid won’t be good, and you might have to coach. You get what you pay for. Most importantly, you can spend weekends in your own home (hello, sourdough bread requires you to be home). Coaching children at home takes less time than driving to Atlanta for games.
Economist Writing Every Day 