Reflecting on the Evolution and Growth of Practical Digital Tools

I wrote the first Wonder Tools post in April 2020 to help journalists and educators navigate the pandemic shift to remote work. I was sick and feeling isolated. I wanted to focus on something bright in that dark moment.

Five years, 265 posts, and 200,000 words later, the newsletter’s archive documents what I’ve found useful for creative productivity. My aim has been to be relentlessly practical, not theoretical, and to help people make the most of technology. Here’s a snapshot of some numbers, lessons, & highlights.

By the numbers: Wonder Tools' first five years

637 apps on my phone. I only use 10% of them regularly, and another 10% occasionally.

219 apps on my laptop, about a third of which I use often.

~$300 monthly software subscription costs.

~3,500 reader emails answered. Most of my replies are quick personal hellos to new readers who have responded to my welcome email. I also often answer questions, whether about apps for scanning a family photo album or research resources for work.

~200,000 words written, many on Sundays and then Wednesday nights, when sentences composed earlier beg for revision.

~137 tools tested but not featured because they weren't worth your time.

65,000+ tech-curious people from 201 countries subscribe to Wonder Tools, growing at ~3% a month.

277 Substack newsletters recommend Wonder Tools. Half of the current readership found this newsletter through a recommendation.

~2,000+ hours spent researching, testing, writing, editing, and publishing.

265 posts on AI, note-taking, productivity apps, focus tactics, and myriad other aspects of our digital lives at home and work.

What I’ve learned to be true

Utility beats pontification

Headlines and hot takes are widely available elsewhere. Instead of offering musings or abstract analysis, I prioritize practical guidance about how to make the most of digital tools.

The 100 to 1 rule: For every minute you spend reading a post, I spend 100 creating it.

Each phase takes time: research, experimentation, interviewing, outlining, writing, rewriting, editing, proofreading, designing visuals, and publishing.

Survival of the fittest: I often prep several versions of a post — or drafts on multiple topics — before settling on a publishable piece.

The hardest part? Converting various notes, ideas, and experiments into a clear, concise, readable— and hopefully relevant— narrative.

Confronting the cold start problem: Voice AI apps — like Letterly — have helped me overcome blank pages. I can start with unstructured oral musings, then edit my jumble into shape.

Consistent publishing requires sacrifice

Spending hours each week on a passion project like this requires tradeoffs. I devote less time to streaming, social media, and watching sports than before starting this. I also read fewer magazines. There’s no free lunch.

Most apps fail the endurance test 📆

If I don’t use a tool regularly after initially exploring it, I usually don’t write about it. Lots of services have disappeared from my workflow over time. Sustainable utility is often evident only after a few months.

Readers supply lots of terrific tips 💌

Ideogram, Raycast, Eagle, and other apps I now rely on came from subscriber suggestions. I also explore discovery hubs to experiment with new tools, some of which I end up writing about.

I delete more words than I publish ✂️

The hardest part of writing is subtracting. What’s omitted is more important than what’s included. When I’m nearly done with a post, I edit out 10%. I learned that in college from John McPhee.

The next 122 tools on my radar 🔭

My near-term exploration list includes 122 sites and apps I’ll try out over the next few months. My backlog includes 328 services I’m curious about. In the early days of this newsletter, I wondered when I’d run out of writing material. Now I wonder how to keep up with even a fraction of the emerging services.

Wonder Tools readers are biologists, bakers, and bowling coaches 🎳 … from tech novices to legendary pros.

I originally envisioned this newsletter serving journalists and educators, but the readership has broadened. Every week I hear from readers who work in all sorts of fields around the world. From top political officials to online celebrities, I’ve been surprised by who pops up on the subscriber list.

When I started my journalism career in Newsweek’s letters department, I spent my days reading missives to the editor. Now the middleman is gone, and I relish the opportunity to correspond directly with readers. So email me or message me on Substack. I’d be happy to hear from you.

Sitting in my New York City kitchen, it’s exciting to hear about a new book from a retired South African engineer or about a new data analysis tool from a math teacher in Iowa. I’m now keenly aware of our common global need for smart digital tools that enhance our screen-based work.

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3 of the most widely-read past posts👇

My hall of fame tool list 💎

After five years of testing hundreds of tools, my enduring favorites are those I rely on consistently and frequently recommend. I would be sorely disappointed if any of these disappeared.

* Craft is my go-to for creating visual documents and handouts. [Read more]

* Perplexity delivers relevant, citation-backed responses to queries, not just links, making it my preferred search tool for gathering actionable info quickly. [Read more]

* Claude has become a valuable thinking partner for brainstorming ideas, proofreading drafts, developing project plans, and creating SEO description text and alt-text for my posts. [Read more]

* Letterly transformed how I overcome writer's block by letting me talk out my ideas and transform rough early thoughts into editable drafts. [Read more]

* ChatGPT remains my AI Swiss Army knife. It helps with everything from generating illustrations to assisting with structuring lesson plans. [Read more]

* NotebookLM helps me extract insights from my notes, documents, links, and recordings. It creates text and audio summaries, draws connections between ideas, assists with timelines, and avoids hallucination, remaining grounded in my materials and providing citations for verification. [Read more]

* Google Docs remains a reliable workhorse. Its collaboration features and ease of use make it indispensable. [Read more]

* Wakeout, which I use almost daily, is my favorite app for movement breaks.

* Substack enabled Wonder Tools to become a sustainable project by facilitating its creation, distribution, and monetization, and by building a network for writers to recommend one another’s work.

p.s. these services I wrote about are no longer around:

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