Austin Kleon, author of “Steal Like an Artist,” has an energy about him that I find utterly irresistible. Recently, he put together a short zine called “Read Like an Artist” that was distributed at bookstores across the country. Austin, being Austin, is also sharing it with everyone. You can download it and print it out to make your own zine or just read it.

It’s full of great advice, like number one: stop reading books you don’t like. And number six: visit the past, recommending you read old books all over again. I think my favorite is number four, but you’ll have to go download it to find out what that is.

Several months ago, I started an experiment by publishing a “Now” page here at MacSparky. (Hat tip to Derek Sivers for the idea.) It’s my version of social media. I update you on projects, both personal and professional, and weigh in on earth-shattering topics like my favorite recent movies and books. I update it a few times a month, and while I have no idea if anybody’s reading it, I’m thoroughly enjoying writing it.

In a recent conversation with my friend Stephen Hackett, I recommended he do the same, and he did.

One of my most successful experiments with artificial intelligence has been with Google’s NotebookLM product. While preparing the update to the Productivity Field Guide, I fed it everything from the prior version, plus transcripts from about 50 videos I recorded, as well as twelve webinars. I also included my research notes prepared for the 2025 edition. This effectively created an AI trained on my own material.

I could then ask it questions that sometimes — though not always —returned insightful answers. This proved to be a valuable resource in completing the 2025 edition, and I believe the final product is better because of it.

Initially, my biggest limitation was the 50-resource cap in NotebookLM. That’s changed now. With a Google One AI Premium account ($20 monthly), you can access NotebookLM Plus, allowing up to 500 separate notebooks and 300 resources per notebook. While I’m comfortable with ChatGPT and Claude, I’m still exploring Google’s Gemini. However, these expanded resource limits in Notebook LM are exactly the kick in the pants I needed to dive deeper.

If you’ve ever watched a Pixar movie, you’re familiar with that cute little table lamp that bounces onto the screen as part of the Pixar logo. Given the extensive cross-pollination between Pixar and Apple, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that the Apple robotics team has built their own version of Luxo.

In a recent video, Apple demonstrates a robotic lamp with several innovative features. It follows your hand gestures and even tracks your book on the table to provide light where it’s needed most. Watch the lamp’s motion closely, and you’ll see that whimsy is deliberately built into its design.

All of this makes me wonder about the rumored wake-up call for Apple home products. Is Apple finally ready to extend itself into making innovative products for our homes and home automation? There are signs pointing to “yes” for the first time in a long time.