Good morning and welcome back to On the Brookeshelf! OTB is a weekly digest of the best content I’m consuming, products I’m trying, and trips I’m planning, so you can skip to the good parts.

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Let’s get into it.

🌟 Favorite of the week

1. Huberman Lab | Robert Greene: A Process for Finding & Achieving Your Unique Purpose Format: Podcast episode Time commitment: 2hr 45mins (or ~2 hours on 1.3x) Why bother: In this episode, Huberman speaks with psychology expert Robert Greene about how insights from early childhood can (and should) guide us toward discovering our life’s purpose. As someone in a period of deep reflection about my path, I felt like the universe sent this episode to me. Maybe this is meant for you today, too. This link has timestamps if you want to skip around, I always recommend listening to long podcasts on 1.3x for efficiency. Give this a listen on your next drive/commute or have a listen while folding your laundry this week.

📰 Other interesting stories

• This company is using machine learning to turn raw DNA into a face. Parabon NanoLabs’s 3D modeling technology has been used by police in at least one murder case to turn DNA samples from a crime scene into an AI-generated image of what the perpetrator *might* look like. But this science is bringing up some pretty big ethical questions, particularly given that this technology is not widely tested. Parabon says it can confidently predict the color of a person's hair, eyes, and skin, as well as the amount of freckles they have and the general shape of their face. But even the company has stated that running their images through facial recognition software to try to identify leads in criminal cases is against their terms of service and also just a terrible idea, which could lead to wrongful convictions.

• We all know about the placebo effect, but what if I told you that placebos might work even when you know they’re just placebos? In a recent study, patients that were openly told they were being prescribed sugar pills still reportedly felt better. It’s unclear why this is – perhaps muscle memory or the association with the ritual of taking medicine. Or (my personal theory) maybe the mind is just that powerful. I’ve seen countless examples in my personal life of the truly overwhelming power of the mind-body connection. Despite the research that’s been done on this phenomenon, I think it is still largely under-emphasized. My grandma willed away stage 4 cancer. I recently met a physical therapist specializing in rehabilitation for newly paralyzed people who told me a story about a woman with the most positive attitude she has ever met walking out of her office 5 months after being told she would never be able to move her legs again, much less walk on them. This article really got me turning back to the power of our minds, and the seemingly impossible that can be made possible through genuine belief. Do you have any crazy stories on this topic? I’d love to hear them.

• Elon Musk has said that his brain implant startup Neuralink has implanted their first chip into a human brain, and that the patient is “recovering well.” The craziest thing I’ve read so far about Neuralink is a product they are working on called “Telepathy,” the goal of which is to allow users to perform tasks by thinking. The company has shown videos of monkeys implanted with its device moving a cursor and playing the videogame “Pong” with their minds. If you thought we were getting closer to a sci-fi universe with the DNA facial recognition, things just got a lot weirder.

• Dubai has a reputation for being over the top, and its newest ultra luxury hotel Atlantis the Royal is no exception. Architectural Digest gives us a peek into what is allegedly the most expensive hotel room in the world at an astounding $100K per night.

• Personally, I don’t own a Stanley (I’m an Owala girl myself) but if you exist at all on social media, surely you’ve borne witness to the Internet’s latest obsession. What you might not know is that Stanley is actually a very old company – like, a century old – and that their revenues jumped a remarkable 10x, from $73 million in 2019 to a projected $750 million in 2023. This Atlantic article tries to tackle the mystery of how a water bottle took the Internet by storm so definitively and so quickly. The short of it is: part design, part leaning into a surprising new demographic (young women), and in large part, luck. So much of success in consumer is branding and while it can be hard to predict when something will go viral, case studies like this one can point us in the direction of patterns.

The most expensive hotel room in the world. Source: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/inside-the-most-expensive-hotel-room-in-the-world

🛍️ New product haul

What I’m loving, and what I’m leaving. 

Loving:

• Portable iPhone stand. This one works for desktop and folds up nicely, so it’s easy to throw in a purse and take on the go. I’ve been using this to create content for my new travel page and to go hands-free while Facetiming family and friends in the US.

• Rock sugar sticks. The ones I buy from the Persian sweets place down the street from me are saffron flavored, but something like these would work just as nicely. I have been bringing these out whenever we are entertaining for tea. I also swirl one around in my latte when I’m in the mood for a sweet treat in the afternoon.

• Owala water bottle. Last week I highlighted the LARQ bacteria-killing water bottle, which is my go-to for travel. Owala is my pick for daily use. The design on these is flawless. First, it has a built-in straw, so you get the benefits of sippy cup feel without the hygiene concerns of something like a Stanley where the straw sticks out collecting germs. Second, the cap lock + push button system means you don’t have to worry about the bottle spilling over in your bag, but you also don’t need to fumble around with unscrewing the cap when you’re ready for a sip. And lastly, it’s insulated, so it keeps your cold water cold and your hot water hot.

Leaving:

• No losers this week.

🛫 One last thing

On solo travel 

I recently came back from a two-week solo trip to Thailand and (briefly) Cambodia. I’ve always loved solo travel. It was a huge part of my life before I met my now-fiancé, Alex, and it continues to be an important part of my life now.

It may seem weird to some that we are engaged and yet choose to travel separately. But making time every year for both of us to take our own solo trips–seperately from the many trips we take together–is a commitment that Alex and I made to each other early on. And it is one that we will continue long into the future (yes, even after we are married).

Why? Traveling solo flexes different muscles than traveling as a couple, and gives both of us an opportunity to spend time with ourselves. I’ve found that after solo travel, I tend to feel much more tapped into my intuition. My energy levels go up, and I tend to come back feeling powerful and confident. There is something liberating about planning as you go, and designing your days on a whim around what you want. There are few times in our lives when we get to live unapologetically and exclusively for ourselves. Building a few of these moments into every year allows both of us to show up fully for each other in our relationship, and to come back rejuvenated and re-energized.

As a general note, solo travel inevitably pushes you to take ownership of your decisions. I’ve found it to be an effective instigator for positive momentum during periods of uncertainty or choice paralysis. Getting out into the world is the best antidote to stagnation or uncertainty of any kind. If you’re considering a solo trip this year, this is your sign: book your flights and get on out there.

Before I go, here’s an abridged overview of my Thailand/Cambodia itinerary, in case this helps you plan a future trip:

That’s all for now, see you next week!

XO, Brooke