Iterate Weekly - Issue 18
VR therapy sessions, Shazam-like apps for everything, my personal journey with barefoot running shoes, amazing photos of amazing work spaces, and another fantastic music documentary
Welcome to issue 18 of the Iterate weekly newsletter!
Hope you’re all doing well. Let’s jump into it.
You’ll see that the content here is broken down into 4 categories.
Tech - This will be the main focus of the newsletter. I’m dedicated to helping people improve their relationships with technology.
Learning - I consider myself an autodidact and like to examine the concept of learning how to be a more productive learner.
Health - None of these other topics are important if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy them.
Grab Bag - This could be something personal, something silly, something fun that doesn’t quite fit the other categories.
Finally, we’ll wrap things up with a quote of the week and a piece of content that I recommend you check out.
Tech
See your therapist in VR
In case you didn’t know, I’m a pretty big fan of VR. Sure, playing games is fun, but I’m more interested in the practical use cases that simplify certain things that we can now do from home. Here is a perfect example of this.
A mental health startup called Rey is looking to bring therapy sessions into the modern virtual world. Their latest round of funding will help them become the leading provider of virtual therapy in an area that has largely been inaccessible for much of the population. While VR headsets still don’t grow on trees, it does offer the ability to lower costs and the travel barriers of seeing therapists in person. While also using technology to alleviate some of the apprehension felt with fully online therapy sessions.
Rey’s CCO Mike Desjadon is bullish on the potential of the company:
“We want to play a big part in democratizing access to good care, which is right now still elusive for people,” Desjadon says.
Rey is still in its infancy, but I’m hoping that within a few years it will be commonplace for people to strap on a VR headset before lying down on the virtual therapist couch.
Learning
Point and Discover Apps
You’re probably familiar with the app Shazam. It was really the first of its kind. An app that would allow you to just point your phone’s speaker in the direction of a song and have it instantly identified felt like magic. If you consider Shazam to be part of the first wave of “point & discover” apps, it’s time to appreciate all of the modern apps that may be less mainstream but nevertheless important. A shoutout to the “Learning how to Learn” newsletter for getting me thinking about this topic.
While some of these features have become natively baked into iOS and Android, Shazam was afterall acquired by Apple. There is still value in having a standalone app that does just one thing and one thing well. Take a look at the list below:
PictureThis - iOS - Android - Instantly identify any plant or flower.
Rock Identifier - iOS - Android - Yep, you guessed it. It identifies rocks. Something that is not easy to do!
Merlin - iOS - Android - Birdwatchers rejoice! This app can help you identify birds by both image and song, featured in the image above.
Theodolite - iOS - Android Have you ever looked into the distance and seen mountain peaks that you couldn’t name? Theodolite will solve that problem!
Vivino - iOS - Android - You can learn everything you need to know about a bottle of wine just by snapping a photo of the logo.
Health
Are barefoot running shoes still worth it?
I’ve been running in so-called “barefoot” running shoes for about a decade. I’ve run full marathons, half marathons and plenty of shorter races. I’ve been fortunate to be pain-free in my running without any of the shin or hip issues sometimes connected to minimal shoes. Just recently, a fellow runner asked me about my shoes and it got me thinking. How many other runners are still wearing shoes like this?
Most of the popularity for shoes with a zero-drop (no raised heel) can be traced back to Christopher McDougall’s amazing book “Born to Run”. The native runners in the book wore no shoes at all and it allowed them to improve their form and avoid some of the ailments of the modern runner. I was a fan of the book, and there were plenty of worthwhile nuggets to glean from it. But most people felt like the barefoot rennaissance was just a fad.
The separate toe pockets of the much ridiculed Vibram Five Fingers have always been too much for me. I love the minimal feel of a thin, flexible sole but I see no need for individual toes. Just give me a wide toe box for my feet to properly splay out. These days I’m loving my Merrell Vapor Glove 5 shoes. They’re the perfect balance of a minimal feel with enough protection from rocks. And they don’t look too ridiculous either.
Anyone out there still wearing barefoot shoes? Am I just enjoying the last gasps of the fad?
Grab Bag
Workspaces.xyz
I love it when I can shout out some other Substack accounts.
Workspaces is a Substack project from Ryan Gilbert. In each weekly issue, he shows off a different workspace. Different artists, creators, writers, and general workers of all types submit their workspaces for him to showcase.
It’s a really simple concept that is excuted to perfection. If you’re a gear nerd like me or just want to get some inspiration to revamp your desk, you will love this newsletter.
Quote of the Week
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Content Recommendation
Woodstock 99: Peace Love and Rage
This week my wife and I watched the documentary film “Woodstock 99: Peace Love and Rage”.
I was 14 years old when Woodstock 99 took place. It would have been about a 2-hour drive from where I grew up in New York. I did not attend. Had I been a few years older, I think I would have made it there. Watching this documentary made me glad that I skipped it.
Woodstock 99 was a total disaster. From the lack of bathrooms to overpriced and hard to come by water, it is a far cry from the well-organized festivals we’ve come to appreciate. Throw in the fact that it took place on an Air Force base where festival goers were essentially disconnected from the rest of civilations, and it was also extremely hot out.
The film does a great job at looking at the pent-up rage that came out of the festival goers by the end of the weekend. It’s easy to point fingers at the artists or the poor job done by the concert promoters. But in the end, it’s a more complicated examination of a strange time in America before the modern internet came along to change everything.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!