How do you do, fellow verbs?
Alternate realities. Wonderful personal gifts. And great things that happened in 2025. (#556)
This is David, your decidedly human web crawler, helping you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. This is the penultimate Weekly Filet of the year. Quick heads up: Next week, we'll have the one and only Weekly Filet Awards, so make sure not to miss that one.
1. The existential balm of seeing yourself as a verb, not a noun
«Grandma was never a thing. She was a verb the entire time. A miraculous harmony of processes – eating, laughing, noticing, forgetting – that one day stopped happening.» At first view, his essay is about the fear of death, and a shift in perspective that can alleviate it. However, it works just as well for seeing one's life in less static and more fluid terms. When you look at life not as an object, but as an unfolding. And understand yourself not as a noun, but a verb.
2. Embedded: Alternate Realities
I don't remember where I saw it listed as the best podcast of the year, but that's how I discovered it. And wow, it did not disappoint. It's the story of a bet the reporter makes with his dad – hoping it will bring him back into a shared reality.
Pocket Casts
3. 600 Readers Told Us About the Best Gifts They Ever Got. These Are the Top 13.
Not your average gift guide, but a collection of beautiful personal gifts NYT readers have received. In case you need some last minute inspiration.
🎁 If you're out of time and inspiration and still want a great gift for someone – there's always the option to gift the Weekly Filet.
4. Deleting DEI
Chilling: A Pro Publica investigation has identified more than 1,000 nonprofits that removed language referring to diversity, equity and inclusion from the mission statements. I couldn't help but think of this article I recommended back in July: The Moral Imperative Of Clear Language.
Ellis Simani, design by Zisiga Mukulu
5. 50 Great Things That Happened in 2025
One day in the future, maybe we will have end-of-year articles of «50 bad things that happened this year» because the entire year felt so overwhelmingly great that people need a reminder that, in fact, not everything was great. Until then...
Emma Varvaloucas
What else?
Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.
- Love this: Duettist inspires and supports creative collaborations between pairs of people who do different things.
- For 40-something dads, Christmas came a little early.
- That is some serious accordion mastery by Alexandr Hrustevich.
- Migration paths of the world's billionaires, visualised.
- Favourite meme of the week: ecstatic Jon Hamm, no doubt. Christmas edition. Leftover bolognese edition. Sleepy Trump edition.
Books for curious minds
Some new ones as I read them, some older ones that continue to inform how I look at the world and myself.
A mind-tickling exploration of time travel from philosophy to physics to pop culture. I was surprised by the fact that for the longest time, humans didn’t really think about time travel. Buy it here.
A gem from the archive
David Bauer
The Weekly Filet archive offers more than 2500 hand-picked links since 2011, like this one. You can search by interests, explore collections or shuffle for a gem.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!
— David
More ways to learn and take inspiration from
Check my 📚 digital bookshelf, with sections of 🌡️ books that help you make sense of the climate crisis, ⛵ books that make you a better product manager, 🪄 books that help you make sense of AI, and 🧒 books that help you as a parent. And from collecting the best links on the web for close to 15 years, my thematic collections: The Art of Thinking (Differently), The Stuff Our Modern World Runs On, Bingeworthy Podcasts, and more.
Little useful apps from me, for you
📊 Dataguessr, a playful way to update your knowledge of the world. 🌍 You Don't Know Africa, a simple game that has already humbled millions of people. 💯 Choose Impact, an online tool to compare job opportunities. 🧭 Priority Compass, a tool for individuals, teams and organisations to focus your energy on what really matters. 🪄 How I Use AI, a collection of use cases, ready to use and adapt. 💬 Climate Questions, a playful conversation starter. And ⏱️ One Minute Challenge, a little meaningful distraction to refocus.