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Open Culture
Gustave Doré’s Haunting Illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy Inferno, Canto X: Many artists have attempted to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s epic poem the Divine...
12 hours ago
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12 hours ago
Inferno, Canto X: Many artists have attempted to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s epic poem the Divine Comedy, but none have made such an indelible stamp on our collective imagination as the Frenchman Gustave Doré. Doré was 23 years old in 1855, when he first decided to create a...
Seth's Blog
Centering Conversations and projects usually revolve around an axis. It could be a goal or an urgency or a...
12 hours ago
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12 hours ago
Conversations and projects usually revolve around an axis. It could be a goal or an urgency or a person. It might be the boss. Wondering what they want, what they need, what sort of mood they’re in, what just happened, what might happen. “What would Jeff do?” It might the clock....
Open Culture
Did Paul McCartney Really Die in 1966? How the Biggest Beatles Conspiracy Theory Spread No pop music can have inspired more scrutiny than that of the Beatles. Of course, intense and...
13 hours ago
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13 hours ago
No pop music can have inspired more scrutiny than that of the Beatles. Of course, intense and sustained attention has been paid to every aspect of the band’s existence — and, in the case of Paul McCartney, his purported non-existence as well. The theory that he actually died in...
Seth's Blog
The violinist problem Two hundred years ago, there were a lot of violinists. Many made a living at it. If you were of...
yesterday
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yesterday
Two hundred years ago, there were a lot of violinists. Many made a living at it. If you were of means and wanted to hear music, your best option was to hire someone to play it for you. Of course, the invention of the phonograph and the radio changed all of that. Now, one great...
Open Culture
The Ancient Roman Dodecahedron: The Mysterious Object That Has Baffled Archaeologists for Centuries There isn’t much place for dodecahedra in modern life, at least in those modern lives with  tabletop...
yesterday
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yesterday
There isn’t much place for dodecahedra in modern life, at least in those modern lives with  tabletop role-playing. In the ancient Roman Empire, however, those shapes seem to have been practically household objects — not that we know what the household would have done with them....
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Alex Williams I’m Alex Williams, a printmaker and illustrator based in Somerset. I mainly make linocut prints in...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
I’m Alex Williams, a printmaker and illustrator based in Somerset. I mainly make linocut prints in bright and bold colours - I very rarely use any black ink! I also create illustrations, murals and bespoke window paintings and run printmaking workshops for adults and...
Open Culture
21 Rules for Living from Miyamoto Musashi, Japan’s Samurai Philosopher (1584–1645) Browse the ever-vaster selection of self-help books, videos, podcasts, and social-media accounts on...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
Browse the ever-vaster selection of self-help books, videos, podcasts, and social-media accounts on offer today, and you’ll find no shortage of prescriptions for how to live. Much of what the gurus of the twenty-twenties have to say sounds awfully similar, and almost as much may...
Seth's Blog
All that torque A screwdriver works because the handle is bigger than the screw. You can twist the handle with...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
A screwdriver works because the handle is bigger than the screw. You can twist the handle with leverage, causing the screw to turn. The bigger the handle, the more leverage you have. We’ve spent a trillion dollars building a worldwide communications and AI network, and you can...
Open Culture
75 Post-Punk and Hardcore Concerts from the 1980s Have Been Digitized & Put Online: Fugazi, GWAR,... Between 1985 and 1988, a teenager by the name of Sohrab Habibion was attending punk and post-punk...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
Between 1985 and 1988, a teenager by the name of Sohrab Habibion was attending punk and post-punk shows around the Washington, DC area. What set him apart was the bulky video camera he’d bring to the show and let roll, documenting entire gigs in all their low-rez, lo-fi glory....
Seth's Blog
“No” is an option “Maybe” is the problem. If you’re serious, say, “yes.” And if it’s not for you, walk away. But...
3 days ago
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3 days ago
“Maybe” is the problem. If you’re serious, say, “yes.” And if it’s not for you, walk away. But endlessly reconsidering opportunities without forward motion is a place to hide.
Open Culture
Yuval Noah Harari Explains How to Protect Your Mind in the Age of AI You could say that we live in the age of artificial intelligence, although it feels truer about no...
3 days ago
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3 days ago
You could say that we live in the age of artificial intelligence, although it feels truer about no aspect of our lives than it does of advertising. “If you want to sell something to people today, you call it AI,” says Yuval Noah Harari in the new Big Think video above, even if...
Seth's Blog
An invitation to vibration Many organizations have a widget or service, something people already need or want, and they work to...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
Many organizations have a widget or service, something people already need or want, and they work to sell it to people. Some seek monopoly power so they can force others to do what they want them to do. But there’s a third path: we can create a brand or a movement or a community...
Open Culture
Discover the World’s Oldest Surviving Cookbook, De Re Coquinaria, from Ancient Rome Western scholarship has had “a bias against studying sensual experience,” writes Reina Gattuso at...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
Western scholarship has had “a bias against studying sensual experience,” writes Reina Gattuso at Atlas Obscura, “the relic of an Enlightenment-era hierarchy that considered taste, touch, and flavor taboo topics for sober academic inquiry.” This does not mean, however, that...
Seth's Blog
What sort of success? “Who’s it for?” is not simply a question about your target customer. Milton Friedman offered to let...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
“Who’s it for?” is not simply a question about your target customer. Milton Friedman offered to let us off the hook–the only thing the work is for is to maximize shareholder value, he said. Nothing else is worth measuring. I’ve never met anyone who consistently believed this....
Open Culture
Watch Joan Baez Endearingly Imitate Bob Dylan (1972) Joan Baez was already heralded as the “Queen of Folk” by the time Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan...
a week ago
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a week ago
Joan Baez was already heralded as the “Queen of Folk” by the time Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan arrived in New York City. Many things brought him to the burgeoning folk scene there, but Baez was the siren who called to a young Dylan through his television set long before he met...
Seth's Blog
“A now, a word from our sponsor” Not really. Just a post about sponsors. Even if you don’t run a media company, the way media...
a week ago
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a week ago
Not really. Just a post about sponsors. Even if you don’t run a media company, the way media companies run matters. That’s because media shapes our culture and how we spend our time. There are three kinds of ad models, and it’s easy to confuse them. The most common and...
Open Culture
2,178 Occult Books Now Digitized & Put Online, Thanks to the Ritman Library and Da Vinci Code Author... In 2018 we brought you some exciting news. Thanks to a generous donation from Da Vinci Code author...
a week ago
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a week ago
In 2018 we brought you some exciting news. Thanks to a generous donation from Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, Amsterdam’s Ritman Library—a sizable collection of pre-1900 books on alchemy, astrology, magic, and other occult subjects—has been digitizing thousands of its rare texts...
Seth's Blog
Moving without traveling Moving is physical, travel is an emotional journey. Moving takes us from one place to another, one...
a week ago
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a week ago
Moving is physical, travel is an emotional journey. Moving takes us from one place to another, one job to another, one situation to another. But if we seek to insulate ourselves from the emotional labor of travel, we can build a cocoon around our experience and discover nothing....
Open Culture
Behold the Very First Color Photograph (1861): Taken by Scottish Physicist & Poet James Clerk... Since its ancient origins as the camera obscura, the photographic camera has always mimicked the...
a week ago
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a week ago
Since its ancient origins as the camera obscura, the photographic camera has always mimicked the human eye, allowing light to enter an aperture, then projecting an image upside down. Renaissance artists relied on the camera obscura to sharpen their own visual perspectives. But it...
Seth's Blog
After the shortcuts The initial adoption of new technology follows a regular pattern. The first group are hobbyists,...
a week ago
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a week ago
The initial adoption of new technology follows a regular pattern. The first group are hobbyists, people looking for a fascinating way to spend time. But that’s a small group–ham radio operators, for example, or theremin musicians. It’s the second group that gets the rest of us to...
Open Culture
The Only Time Prince & Miles Davis Jammed Together Onstage: Watch the New Year’s Eve, 1987 Concert A too-precious genre of internet meme depicts departed public figures who did not know each other in...
a week ago
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a week ago
A too-precious genre of internet meme depicts departed public figures who did not know each other in life meeting in heaven with hugs, high-fives, and wincingly earnest exchanges. These sentimental vignettes are almost too easy to parody, a kitschy version of the “what if” game,...
Blog - Mac Pierce
An (overbuilt) 10" mini rack for a LAN Party Plans, files, and BOM to build your own 10” mini rack using T-slot extrusion and 3D prints.
a week ago
Open Culture
Why Ancient Romans Paid a Fortune for the Color Purple — More Than Even Silver Purple may not be one of the most popular colors in the apparel of our age, but if you want it — as...
a week ago
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a week ago
Purple may not be one of the most popular colors in the apparel of our age, but if you want it — as certain cultural figures have amply demonstrated — you can get as much of it as you like, even if you don’t belong to the aristocracy. That wasn’t the case in antiquity, as […]
Seth's Blog
What does it want? A useful way to understand an evolved organism or system is to ask what it wants. What actions does...
a week ago
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a week ago
A useful way to understand an evolved organism or system is to ask what it wants. What actions does it need to evoke to survive or thrive? The flower wants bees to visit, the berries want to be eaten by birds. Obviously, they don’t have conscious intent, but this desire guides...
Open Culture
David Lynch’s Weird Espresso Maker Gets Taken for a Test Drive David Lynch loved his coffee. For decades, the filmmaker let coffee fuel his creativity, drinking...
a week ago
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a week ago
David Lynch loved his coffee. For decades, the filmmaker let coffee fuel his creativity, drinking five, six, even seven cups per day at Bob’s Big Boy. Famously, Lynch celebrated coffee in Twin Peaks (remember the line, “That’s a damn fine cup of coffee!”), and later directed a...
Seth's Blog
After the chores Each day, I have about 8 hours of tasks to do. Empty the dishwasher, bring in the paper, answer...
a week ago
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a week ago
Each day, I have about 8 hours of tasks to do. Empty the dishwasher, bring in the paper, answer emails, queue up a blog post… it’s a very long list. I’m sure you have one as well. If we’re good at the chores, we’ll be offered new ones. And of course, it’s possible to find […]
Open Culture
One-in-70-Trillion: An Evolutionary Biologist Explains the Mind-Bending Probability of Our Existence At a 1998 conference on technology and life, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
At a 1998 conference on technology and life, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams once proposed the notion of a sentient puddle. Imagine it “waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself...
Seth's Blog
Compounding luck Human luck doesn’t even out. Regression to the mean explains that in statistics, outlying events...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Human luck doesn’t even out. Regression to the mean explains that in statistics, outlying events tend to be overcome by average ones. But in society, the opposite is often true. A small headstart becomes a bigger one, or a small stumble can turn into something that is hard to...
Open Culture
The Spinal Tap Sequel Arrives Next Month: Watch the Trailer and a Scene with Elton John & Paul... This Is Spinal Tap came out more than 40 years ago. At the time, says director Rob Reiner in a...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
This Is Spinal Tap came out more than 40 years ago. At the time, says director Rob Reiner in a recent interview at San Diego Comic-Con, “nobody got it. I mean, they thought I’d made a movie about a real band that wasn’t very good, and why wouldn’t I make a movie about the Beatles...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Fiona Rimmer Hi, my name is Fiona Rimmer and I'm a printmaker/etcher from Hampshire, UK where I live with my...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Hi, my name is Fiona Rimmer and I'm a printmaker/etcher from Hampshire, UK where I live with my husband, 3 sons and a beautiful dog called Skyla (the humans are beautiful too).  I have a degree in Fine Art from Lancaster University and an MA in Illustration from Falmouth...
Seth's Blog
The table of contents (and the index) The index is the search bar, the random access to the facts we can look up. The table of contents,...
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The index is the search bar, the random access to the facts we can look up. The table of contents, though, that’s a point of view. It’s a taxonomy of how to understand a complicated idea. It’s the skeleton of the narrative and the pedagogy for learning. We’re at risk of becoming...
Open Culture
Watch Meshes of the Afternoon, the Experimental Short Voted the 16th Best Film of All Time It seems not to be documented whether the Santa Ana winds were blowing when Maya Deren and Alexander...
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2 weeks ago
It seems not to be documented whether the Santa Ana winds were blowing when Maya Deren and Alexander Hackenschmied shot Meshes of the Afternoon. But everything about the film itself suggests that they must have been, so vivid does its atmosphere of luxuriantly arid paranoia...
Handprinted - Blog
Speedball Speedy Carve Block using Process Colours Speedy Carve Blocks are delicious to cut and a joy to print. We have featured them many times in our...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Speedy Carve Blocks are delicious to cut and a joy to print. We have featured them many times in our blog, but this time we have created a process with a three-layered print. For a layered print like this, it's helpful to start with a drawing. Map out the colours to plan their...
Open Culture
Emma Willard, the First Female Mapmaker in America, Creates Pioneering Maps of Time to Teach... We all know Marshall McLuhan’s pithy, endlessly quotable line “the medium is the message,” but...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
We all know Marshall McLuhan’s pithy, endlessly quotable line “the medium is the message,” but rarely do we stop to ask which one comes first. The development of communication technologies may genuinely present us with a chicken or egg scenario. After all, only a culture that...
Seth's Blog
A new tool to help you get unstuck I’ve spent months creating something I’m excited to share: The Mentor Deck. Here’s an invite for...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
I’ve spent months creating something I’m excited to share: The Mentor Deck. Here’s an invite for 2,000 people to purchase and test the very first edition. Reading a book changes how you think. But turning those ideas into action? That’s where most of us get stuck. You need more...
Open Culture
A Live Studio Cover of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Played from Start to Finish Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is such a work of art that to split it up into nine tracks—like...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is such a work of art that to split it up into nine tracks—like classic rock radio has done for years—always sounds nonsensical. How can you just end “Breathe” on that final chord and not follow it with the analog drones of “On the Run”? How can...
Seth's Blog
What sort of better? Sneakers are better for running a marathon, but shoes are better for a wedding reception. This is...
2 weeks ago
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Sneakers are better for running a marathon, but shoes are better for a wedding reception. This is the better of utility. Finding something that does the job it sets out to do. And then there is the better of taste. Yellow mustard might be better than Dijon mustard. Not for me,...
Open Culture
Watch Anémic Cinéma, Marcel Duchamp’s Whirling Avant-Garde Film (1926) Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) made some heady art. His whole goal was to “put art back in the service...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) made some heady art. His whole goal was to “put art back in the service of the mind,” or to create what Jasper Johns once called the “field where language, thought and vision act on one another.” And that’s precisely what Duchamp’s 1926 avant-garde...
Seth's Blog
Movies, books and paintings No important movie has ever been a solo project. While we can see a director’s point of view from...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
No important movie has ever been a solo project. While we can see a director’s point of view from movie to movie, the collaborative nature of the work is evident. Actors, cinematographers and musicians all change what we see. And because of the huge amount of time and money...
Open Culture
Hundreds of Medieval Medical Manuscripts with Strange Cures Get Digitized & Put Online: From Leeches... If any discussion of medieval medicine gets going, it’s only a matter of time before someone brings...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
If any discussion of medieval medicine gets going, it’s only a matter of time before someone brings up leeches. And it turns out that the centrality of those squirming blood-suckers to the treatment of disease in the Middle Ages isn’t much overstated, at least judging by a look...
Handprinted - Blog
Tetra Pak Drypoint and Collagraph Printing When we first heard the news that Tetra Pak cartons could be used for printmaking, we were excited...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
When we first heard the news that Tetra Pak cartons could be used for printmaking, we were excited to try it out. We started to collect all the cartons we had at home and got ready to put them to a new use in the studio. Here’s a little project to get started using Tetra Pak...
Seth's Blog
Mostly unreasonable It’s tempting to go to an extreme. Unreasonable design standards, quality or hospitality are an...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
It’s tempting to go to an extreme. Unreasonable design standards, quality or hospitality are an effective way to gain share, delight customers and spread the word. To be unreasonable in service of your customers is a practice and a commitment. Along the way, though, reality sets...
Open Culture
An Introduction to Aleister Crowley, History’s Most Infamous Occultist “Do what thou wilt”: as the central principle of a worldview, it may not sound like much, but at...
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3 weeks ago
“Do what thou wilt”: as the central principle of a worldview, it may not sound like much, but at least there are always a great many people ready and willing to hear it. So discovered Aleister Crowley, the early twentieth-century Occultist now remembered not just for his...
Seth's Blog
The menu A while ago, I ate in a restaurant that had no menu. The waiter simply walked over to the table and...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
A while ago, I ate in a restaurant that had no menu. The waiter simply walked over to the table and said, “what do you want?” As bold as statement as this is, it made many diners uncomfortable and often led to people ordering without much imagination. Around the same time, I...
Open Culture
Isaac Asimov Predicts in 1964 What the World Will Look Like in 2014 Image by Rochester Institute of Technology, via Wikimedia Commons When New York City hosted...
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3 weeks ago
Image by Rochester Institute of Technology, via Wikimedia Commons When New York City hosted The World’s Fair in 1964, Isaac Asimov, the prolific sci-fi author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, took the opportunity to wonder what the world would look like 50...
Seth's Blog
The order and the medium of feedback Who do you pay attention to? Do you respond or react to the feedback that’s coming in? Do you seek...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Who do you pay attention to? Do you respond or react to the feedback that’s coming in? Do you seek it out or wait for it to arrive? Does vivid online feedback from anonymous trolls carry more weight than honest but more subtle feedback from actual customers? Pick your feedback,...
Open Culture
Archaeologists Discover a 2,400-Year-Old Skeleton Mosaic That Urges People to “Be Cheerful and Live... Image by Dosseman, via Wikimedia Commons In 2012, archaeologists discovered in Southern Turkey a...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Image by Dosseman, via Wikimedia Commons In 2012, archaeologists discovered in Southern Turkey a well-preserved mosaic featuring a skeleton savoring a loaf of bread and a pitcher of wine, surrounded by the Greek words “Be cheerful and live your life.” Dating back to the 3rd...
Seth's Blog
Settling for better Perhaps you’re really good at the job. Hard charging. Focused on every interaction and staying in...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Perhaps you’re really good at the job. Hard charging. Focused on every interaction and staying in control. It’s easy to justify the hard work because you refuse to settle. It turns out that your community is here and ready to contribute. When you give others the resources, trust...
Open Culture
How Disney Fought Fascism with Propaganda Cartoons During World War II & Averted Financial Collapse Today, the Walt Disney Company seems like one of those entities that’s “too big to fail” — but...
4 weeks ago
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4 weeks ago
Today, the Walt Disney Company seems like one of those entities that’s “too big to fail” — but during the Second World War, fail it nearly did. Like the big-thinking entertainer-businessman he was, Walt Disney himself had been re-investing the company’s profits into ever more...
Seth's Blog
How much extra is the gift wrap? One way to turn a product or service into a story is to gift wrap it. Yes, you did my taxes, but did...
4 weeks ago
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4 weeks ago
One way to turn a product or service into a story is to gift wrap it. Yes, you did my taxes, but did you include a two-page summary and a useful folder to keep it in? Whether you’re providing a service to a casual customer or a product to a regular patron, what you’re really […]