1 . Being a writer in the 21st century can keep you in front of a screen for so long that it feels like the room is sideways. Being a human with the Internet can mean hours spent on social media, scrolling and posting for so long that your sense of reality actually becomes sideways. Three years ago, I started to search for ways to deal with my anxiety. I had a brilliant idea, one that felt completely foreign to people like me: I’d go outside, to the real outside.

I grew up in the city, not hiking or camping, so I knew nothing about the outdoors. I have three kids with endless energy, so I figured I could solve two questions at once. I would get a breather from my job and the kids would play with insects and realize there is nothing better than nature.

We drove to Great Falls, Virginia, where hundreds of people on any given day spent hours meandering through the hillside and forest. The blue water pulsed, turning white and crashing powerfully hundreds of feet beneath us. The kids held their breath as if they had seen magics. But it’s just nature, just the outside, and that had been there all along. Since then, we’ve been fascinated.

Last summer I felt my home’s walls closing in, so I decided to go camping. I built my first fire. My kids watched my every move, asking every ten minutes to help get more branches and roast meat. About a month, my craving to take a break from the city grew again. We camped two more times before the cold came, each time seeing a bit more of what nature had to offer city folks.

3 . Smartphones and other digital devices control and consume our attention. This is true for young people. On public transport, they are checking social media or playing an addictive game rather than sleeping. Very few people are reading a book or having a conversation with fellow travelers.

Children today are digital natives. This means they have never known life without internet access. They have been raised on clicks. They jump from content to content without a second thought. In the words of the philosopher Han in his 2021 book Non-things, this kind of nonstop excitement means that we quickly come to need a new exciter. We get used to seeing reality as a source of exciters and surprises. We struggle to focus our attention on any one thing. This will disturb our cognitive (认知) system.

Books can train the brain to deeply focus its attention on one task while mobile devices encourage us to hang over the surface of things, but we do not fully grasp them. When we receive information in large amounts, it stops being meaningful. When faced with a large amount of it, our brains react by blocking the information. But the discarded content does not simply disappear from our minds. Instead, it remains. This prevents us from figuring out what we are interested in. It limits our attention length.

Mobile phone addiction and the way young people learn are both directly connected to the concept of mind wandering. Too much information input makes us switch off and lose attention. And this can be damaging in the long term.

In order to recover attention, the brain needs to take a break. It needs to find time and space where it can be free from constant noise. Adults can make the effort to find these much-needed spaces to focus attention. Children, on the other hand, have not yet gained this. They run the risk of never recovering their attention spans. If we give children and teenagers access to digital devices before they have developed these skills, their attention will be free to wander. It will then become harder and harder for them to focus on a task for the necessary amount of time.

4 . For any advanced record collector, we have a great collection for you to know about your favorite music!

The Beatles — Vol 1 Evolution (1940-64)

This is the first in die set of three-Its 116 pages cover every single, album from 1962 to 1964, all newly reviewed by top experts, forming a UK Beatles discography (录音作品名录) with comments: a must-have for fans and collectors.

The Beatles — Vol 2: Revolution (1965-67)

It is the second in the set. Covering their creative glory years in the mid-60s, up to the recording of their masterpiece, Sgt Pepper’s, it presents interviews with their great producer George Martin, Pattie Boyd and Beatles insider Tony Bramwell. 116 pages of quality reading.

The Beatles — Vol 3: Ascension (1968-2019)

It is the third in the series, covering their final years together, from the story of the White Album to the success of Abbey Road. There is analysis of what finally broke up the band.

The Rolling Stones: Making The Legend

This special magazine focusing on the archives tells the best story of the rise of The rolling Stones. It’s a must — have for fans of the world’s greatest rock roll band — and for anyone who wants to became what it is today, this is right for you.

Pink Floyd — Shooting For The Moon

It records the development of this globally loved band, from their beginnings back in 1967 to their lasting position half a century later, by the way of archive (档案，史料).

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5 . Mushrooms (蘑菇) usually grow on dark, damp forest floors or fallen tree branches. Now a company in Abu Dhabi has found a way to grow them in the middle of the desert.

Below Farm is producing special mushrooms. Co-founder Bronte Weir says the indoor farm, about 45 minutes’ drive from downtown Abu Dhabi, is the first in the region to grow and sell high-end mushrooms. Below Farm’s offerings are better than imported mushrooms, she says, because mushrooms lose their freshness quickly.

Weir co-founded the company in 2021, in cooperation with Liliana Slowinska and Wojciech Slowinski. They mainly sell the mushrooms to restaurants and stores. Also, they sell mushrooms directly to customers.

Weir says that existing indoor mushroom-growing technology, developed mainly in Europe and the United States, isn’t designed for Abu Dhabi’s high daytime temperatures, which can top 40 degrees Celsius in summer.

Wojciech Slowinski took the lead in developing a solution. The farm consists of four special chambers (室) covered in a foot-deep layer of insulation (隔热材料) to help keep the space cool. “We can create the right conditions for each type of mushroom,” says Weir. Maintaining higher air pressure inside the rooms helps to protect the crops from Abu Dhabi’s winds and dust.

Raj Dagstanı, who runs a restaurant, is a fan of Below Farm. “The best-tasting pizza on the menu is the mushroom,” says Dagstani, adding that he created the dish after he tried out Below Farm’s mushrooms. He now orders 20 kilograms of mushrooms a week from the company. According to market intelligence experts, the global mushroom market grew by over 9% last year and continues to expand, partly due to the popularity of plant-based diets.

6 . Earlier this year I was asked to design a sculpture for London’s first step-free trail (无障碍通道) with Whizz-Kidz, the UK’s leading charity for young wheelchair users. It was an offer I couldn’t possibly refuse, considering the trail is a way to increase public awareness about the need for wheelchair users to be mobile and included in society, through the power of art. It was also something that seemed extra important to me, as art isn’t always something accessible to me as a disabled person.

I was born in a working-class family in 1969. We never had much money, so getting hobbies was difficult. But Mum and Dad always made sure that I had something to draw on. As a child, I often lost myself in drawing in our small house. However, a bad illness caused me to be paralyzed at 11, ending up in a wheelchair. Still, during these dark moments I learned to escape through art. Fortunately, I recovered enough to go to art college.

It was when a friend recommended an iPad to me in my thirties that my life as an artist totally changed. It changed the way I made art, as I could effectively create art digitally. The art poured out of me. Things moved so quickly that after just four months, my work on my personal experiences as a disabled person was shown in a group show in America.

And this led me to work with groups of disabled people, so I could use iPad to make art about the stories I was being told. I was not giving them a voice, but it was they who gave me a voice, so that I could make public art about disability. Eventually, I hoped art would change public policy. I hope thousands of disabled people will be able to take part and enjoy the wonderful art on show, and I know it is a celebration of them and their lives.

10 . In a world of constant noise, endless choices, and great complexity, the desire for simplicity has become a necessity. The book “Yes Means Yes, Everything Else Means No,” by Bruce Mullen, digs into the deep philosophy of simplicity in decision-making. The interesting title tells readers to grasp the art of clear choices. The book recommends us to put our energies into the definite “Yes” and avoid from weakening our efforts with the less important details.

Simplicity in decision-making stresses clearness and efficiency while making choices. In a world filled with information overload, using simplicity can lead to better results. When faced with complex decisions, individuals or organizations often struggle to deal with plenty of data, leading to imperfect choices.

By accepting simplicity, decision-makers aim to get the key information, focus on the most related factors, and avoid unnecessary details. This approach encourages us to pick out the main aims, enabling quicker evaluations and conclusions.

Through his personal experiences, Mullen felt the power of simplicity, leading him to make better decisions. This book can also be applied to business planning. Mullen’s exploration into the phrase “yes means yes” showed the importance of clear intention in negotiating life’s crossroads.

Basically, “Yes Means Yes, Everything Else Means No” is more than just an exploration of simplicity in theory; it’s a practical guide to improve decision-making skills. The author doesn’t only promote the philosophy but equips readers with the skills they need to carry it out effectively. From techniques to prioritize (优先) tasks to methods for removing distractions, the book offers practical tools for simplifying the decision-making process. For those seeking to live a life with a clear purpose, this book is a guiding light among the fog of indecision.