Cool toolsKevin Kelly
Cool tools
by Kevin Kelly · first published 2013
12mentions
7recommended by
11HN commenters
2010–2023first – last mentioned
64% recommend36% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A curated catalog of practical tools and gadgets for making things, with hands-on reviews. It serves as a browsing guide to useful items and follows in the tradition of the Whole Earth Catalog.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Human Thought Revealed, by Ray Kurzweil http://amazon.decenturl.com/make-a-mind Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, by Douglas Rushkoff http://amazon.decenturl.com/ten-commands Cool Tools, by Kevin Kelly http://amazon.decenturl.com/cool-tools (Yes, those are affiliate links)
on “Ask HN: Good business or technology book recommendations?” ↗Cool Tools by Kevin Kelly - a must own if you're interested in making things. https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Tools-Possibilities-Kevin-Kelly/...
on “Ask HN: Coffee table books” ↗Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities by Kevin Kelly https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Tools-Possibilities-Kevin-Kelly/... is a worthy successor to Whole Earth Catalog in both content and spirit.
on “Whole Earth Software Catalog (1984)” ↗The solution I have found is crowd sourced or expert recommendations from the following sources: Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools book and website. Metafilter Reddit's Buy It For Life subreddit Finehomebuilding's Tool Guide I find I buy less stuff, but of much higher quality or utility in this way. Some times I get something at…
on “A Tech-Driven Boom Is Coming; Please Be Patient” ↗FYI, Kevin Kelly's "Cool Tools" is a solid, and useful coffee table book. Some things from 2013 don't age well, but for it is useful for lots of items. A quick skim of my copy didn't find the bug salt shotgun, but there is a water-based…
on “Bug-a-Salt (2013)” ↗Sure. I don't do much product discovery via Amazon either. For that I turn to places not trying to sell me things like Consumer Reports, Wirecutter, and Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools. Also forums where other users talk about our shared problems and what has worked for them.
on “I changed my mind about advertising” ↗Kevin Kelly's book: Cool Tools.
on “Ask HN: What are some good gift ideas for hacker types?” ↗…(http://intertwingly.net/blog/) - Atom, Python, Ruby, Rails, XML, HTML5, SVG. Read what he reads at: http://planet.intertwingly.net/ Kevin Kelly (http://kk.org/kk/) - Whole Earth Catalog, WELL, Wired magazine, Cool Tools, various books. Compared to the rest of my list, KK does much more big-picture thinking about technology and society. ---- ...and some of the not-so-loud alpha geeks who I wish posted more (but not…
on “Ask HN: Who are the Alpha Geeks you follow?” ↗…think you wanted. Unless you have unusually tight control over yourself, you'll find your buying more stuff (http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html) you don't actually need. Reading Kevin Kelly's quasi-blog Cool Tools: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/ also offers this danger, but it also very occasionally makes me find something I've always wanted and didn't realize, like the Best Book Stand Jasmine: http://jseliger.com/2010/09/04/highly-recommended-the-best-b...…
on “The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business” ↗I am browsing Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools book. It is remarkable how the prices of maybe three out of four items has doubled in the last four years. Maybe the market has simply bifurcated.
on “EU Parliament calls for longer lifetime for products” ↗Interesting, this does not appear to be related to Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools (https://kk.org/cooltools/), which I assumed would date back to those days. Apparently the KK page was started as late as 2000. The idea is nice, expanding your knowledge of tools that are out there,…
on “Cool Tool of the Day (1997)” ↗Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools maybe? Not even sure if it's still extant.
on ““Takumi No Waza” – Japan's famous Green Bell Nail Clippers” ↗