An investor, entrepreneur, and author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. I started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. Join 20,000 CEOs, investors, and founders and receive business tips, productivity tools, and other resources from me.
Friends News: Tech tools, trinkets, gift ideas
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Hello Reader, from your friend Nick, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. In this issue: 4 nerdy tech tools I like, last-minute gift ideas from my friend Danielle, a list of 37 favorite home and beauty things for women, my Nov 2024 life recap, 3 great quotes, and more. NICK GRAY FRIENDS NEWSLETTER Why you’re getting this: I'm Nick Gray and this is my Friends Newsletter. I send this every month to interesting people I’ve connected with and friends I want to keep in touch with. You can un-subscríbe any time and I won't be mad. I won't even be notified! Random Links🌹 37 Classy Gifts for Women: Lauren's List Guys: maybe you can find a gift for a woman you like on this list. I asked this woman I'm dating to list all of her favorite things. She has good taste. Here's her favorite dish soap, body wash, perfumes, an awesome travel makeup bag, a gift for your mother-in-law, and more. 🎁 Danielle's Last-Minute Gift Guide I interviewed my very good friend Danielle. We looked through her Amazon list and picked out the most interesting things. It's a great kid-friendly list of gifts and stocking stuffers. Be sure to see the Timer, the Slim Glass Water Bottle, the Travel Mug, and the binocs. ✈️ Nick Gray's November 2024 Life Recap Every month I've been typing up my notes and sharing my favorite photos. This one has some new NYC tips, dating advice for single men, and a grab bag full of more random stuff. Tech Tools🌐 DebugBear Website Speed Test If you build websites or have your own website, you should care about how fast your site loads. I test all my sites regularly. But now that GTmetrix has gone paid, this seems to be the best (free) tool. Google's PageSpeed Insights is also still good, but this one gives you a much more detailed look at what's slowing down your site. 🎤 AssemblyAI's Playground: Speech-to-Text This is the best free voice-to-text transcriber I've found. It does speaker labels, which is insanely helpful when you're transcribing podcasts or doing inference against a long interview. I've also used the new Voice Recorder on iOS that does built-in transcriptions, but when I want the best accuracy and speaker labels, I use this. 🗣️ Flow: MacOS App for Voice-to-Text I'm obsessed with this app. You talk, it types. It's dead simple and like 500% more accurate than Siri's recognition capabilities. I use it every day on my MacBook Air to send text messages, draft documents, etc. This is an affiliate link to try it. Or non-affiliate link here. Test the spammyness of your emails before sending. I know my messages usually go to the Promotions folder, but I try to keep them out of spam. This is a tool I've used for years to preview my newsletters before sending to check for any warnings. Danielle’s Last-Minute Gift GuideI love random lists of stuff. Here’s my friend Danielle’s personally tested collection of amazing items that make fantastic presents or stocking stuffers for just about anyone. Especially quirky people like me. Read the full article here. Lauren's List of Luxury Home StuffI love lists of what people buy online. In part because I'm nosy. But also because I always want the best stuff in my own home. I asked this woman I've been dating, Lauren, for her favorite things. Here's the list of all the stuff she loves. Good Quotes I Like"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don't want to run out of gas on your trip, but you're not doing a tour of gas stations." Tim O'Reilly "We think we want information, but what we really want is connection. We think we want facts, but what we really want is familiarity. We think we want success, but what we really want is understanding." Simon Sinek "A good relationship is when someone accepts your past, supports your present, and encourages your future." "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." The EndLast week was my birthday. I spent it trying to give away $43,000 to 43 different charities that my friends suggested to me. I made it to 25 or so (see the list here). Hoping to finish up next week during Christmas down-time. I'll be in Austin this week, then Denver for Christmas, Aspen for New Year's, and maybe Tokyo, Japan in early January. The end for now! Have a great week. 🤠 Nick Gray p.s. Here's the About Me on my website if you forgot who I am. We met [HOWWEMET GOES HERE]. Add me elsewhere@NickGrayNews on all the social media The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings |
Friends Newsletter
An investor, entrepreneur, and author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. I started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. Join 20,000 CEOs, investors, and founders and receive business tips, productivity tools, and other resources from me.