A quick intro with changes to come. We are coming up on the final week of the 100 published newsletters in 100 days, and the recaps are being reviewed—what a learning journey this has been. Today, jump in for quick hits on Innovation, Inspiration, the love of books, and the writers that power them.

Our big story today is a visual Capitalist piece that describes the 10 types of innovation. As we head into the economic unknown of 2023, it might be a good time to brush up on innovation and start thinking about carving out a small piece for ourselves. Innovation is unequal parts; inspiration, perspiration, and profanity. If you want it to work together and you want it to succeed, put a process into place.

The Innovation Wheel is a process; the more time you spend defining where your innovation can go, the better your odds of success. Several examples of companies have used these models with great success. Start your dream-machine engine and reach for it!

Nik Goke writes an excellent article on standing on the shoulders of giants.  Nik’s twist to this Isaac Newton theme is adding the giants together.  Sort of like those robot cartoons where several robots combine to make up one giant robot; I think the Power Rangers could do this too.  Nik puts Harry Potter, Pippi Longstocking, and Superman into his big chain; I added that term into DALL-E; here’s what the bit AI thought about it.

Since this is a story about the sum of giants, I’ll add my own.  While I read Nik’s piece, I thought of a song by one of my favorite Indie bands, The Samples, and a song called Giants.  Here are the lyrics:

As I woke this morning

The sun gone without warning

Giants without hearts were coming closer

Walking through the river

I could only stand and shiver

In an abyss where life once was

Our world is getting smaller

While their walls grow taller

Spider monkeys cling to falling

Trees, as the water rises higher

Ten thousand years

Shall drown

I'm so tired of running away

I think I'll put on my war paint

And take a stand where others

Have before

Giants without hearts

Are coming closer

Credit:   The Samples

To wrap it up, if you are going to fight giants without hearts, you are going to need all the help you can get. 

AI is making it into more and more newsletters every day.  Here is an article from CNET about a few more “Use Cases” for using ChatGPT.  With the popularity of this new tech and website, we also spent time with Too many requests, trying later messages again.

New ChatGPT ideas from CNET.  Top ideas:

What we’ve used it for to date:

A spot on Axios reported that Michael Crichton, the late author of Jurassic Park and ER, has a new book.  Axios was reporting on an article in the WSJ which says that Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton found parts of an unfinished manuscript spread across many hard drives.  The article has some exciting backstories into how the book will be put together; it’s more fun to speculate.  Alex Cross is a favorite Patterson character, and I loved many of Crichton’s medical mystery books.

Let’s mashup a few titles from both authors for fun and see if we can’t figure out the next book title.  The article said the book could be set in Hawaii and have something to do with volcanos.  Let us know what you think:

As an avid Kindle reader, a Wired story on the best Kindle Readers for every category caught my attention.  Reading books, magazines, comics, and newsletters on my iPad have surpassed the hours I used to spend watching TV.  With physical books and bookmarks, I had to finish one book before I could take my bookmark to another book.  With the Kindle and the endless library at my fingertip, I read several books simultaneously.  If I’m in the mood for mystery, I have books for that, comedy, books, or comics.  There are books for r, research, non-fiction, or to continue my learning.  The Kindle and the iPad have transformed how I read, and I am grateful for that.

Wired does an excellent job of highlighting what the various Kindle products do.  My first Kindle was the second version of Kindle, probably 12 years ago.  I still have it, and in the Wired article, it’s listed under the section Avoid These Kindles!  This early version of the Kindle did what it needed to do and delivered an easy reading experience without having to lug a bunch of books around.  I was the proud owner of an early Kindle and several early Mp3 players before the iPhone took that need away from me.  The iPad did the same for my Kindle upgrade; after I got an iPad and started to use the Kindle app on the iPad, I never looked back at a specific Kindle device. 

Last note on the Wired article, there are a few other things you can do on the Kindle; some of them I’ve tried, others I have not.  Word Wise is a part of the Kindle hardware and the Kindle app, and I use this on my iPad.  Word Wise will show you a short definition of some words while you are reading.  You have the ability to determine what kind of words (complicated or straightforward) it offers you the definition of; I have it on the ‘Only show complex words’ setting, and ninety percent of the words it helps with.

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Get lucky.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.