BrainPint - You're Allowed To Do These Things

Hi everyone,

This week we're covering things you're allowed to do but thought you couldn't, why your swimsuit color could save your life and how to make conversations better and overcome social anxiety.

I'm moving to an official bi-weekly publishing schedule over the summer so I get to spend time with the ones I love and travel (Italy, Singapore and Tanzania are in the books). Happy summer!

Cheers,
Janel

Things You're Allowed To Do
A list of things you’re allowed to do that you thought you couldn’t, or didn’t even know you could. Some favorites:

• Ask questions online: You know those answers you enjoy reading on Stack Exchange, Reddit, Quora, etc.? Someone had to ask those questions. It can be you.
• Say “I don’t know” or “I don’t have an opinion” when you don’t
• Travel to friends just to visit them
• Hire cleaning services: Regular or deep cleaning. I do this and my life is better.
• Ignore what’s on the jobs page and directly pitch someone at a company on hiring you.

Making Normal Conversations Better
Many conversations can be nudged in the direction of openness, spontaneous complexity, and shared emotionality, and a lot of them can help connect. Here's Sasha Chapin's list of tips on how to make them better.

I loved his tips on how to extend the conversation.

• "Say more” and “care to elaborate” are magical phrases. 
• You can also repeat what they said. “Work has been crazy lately.” “Work has been crazy lately?” That can do a lot. 
• The question “why is that important to you,” while more intense, can get you really far, really fast, if you sense a mood of openness, especially if you learn to ask it casually.

How The Color Of Your Swimsuit Can Save Your Life
When objects are submerged underwater, the way we perceive their colors can change due to various factors, such as the absorption and scattering of light. To remain visible in the water, experts recommend wearing neon colours, either solid, colour-blocked, or with small prints. These can make a difference in an emergency.

Things you can say to people in ten seconds that sometimes produce insanely outsized effects
10 things that you can do to drive an impact, without much effort.

How To Overcome Social Anxiety
If you're looking for guidance on navigating social situations with confidence, check out this insightful guide which offers effective strategies and practical tips to help you conquer your feelings.

1. Understand the causes of social anxiety. When you feel socially anxious, you might worry about what others think of you and hope you are making a good impression.
2. Identify your goals. Identify areas of your social life that you want to improve, such as making more friends or speaking up in meetings.
3. Level up your conversational skills. Three social skills can improve your social confidence: starting conversations, reading the room, and asking good questions.
4. Exposure: do the things that scare you. Participate a range of social situations so you can practise socialising, learn that your Worst Case Scenario probably won’t happen.

How To Choose A Career
Julian Shapiro shares the framework he uses to help us come to similar realizations on what we should really be working on. It's stuff that's steeped in understanding our personal values.

Visual Frameworks - Illustrations of mental models to help you think creatively, reframe challenging situations to solve problems.

Extrapolate - See how you might look like in 20 years' time with the help of AI by uploading a current picture. Free.

QR Code AI Art Generator by Huggingface - Bored of plain black and white QR codes? Generate beautiful QR codes surrounded by art via this generator.

Smart Layouts by designstripe is an AI-powered social designer. Get a daily feed of personalized, customizable designs for social media – always on topic, always on brand.

Productivity Wearable - Design your day for success with Pylot, the first wearable to track your productivity.

Meco is a distraction-free space for reading and discovering newsletters, separate from the inbox. Add your newsletters in seconds and liberate your inbox, for free.

Share your work with >6k curious BrainPint readers by reserving a spot in Brain Snacks!

Optical Toys - Fun optical illusions and brain-bending toys. My favorite is the waterfall effect that makes the world warp around you. Note: Not friendly for people with epilepsy, sorry!

Flag Whiz - A flag coloring quiz that challenges you to match the colors of country flags.

Reddark - A site that tracks the subreddits that have gone unrestricted or private to protest Reddit's unpopular API changes