Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. Prepare to have your mind blown! I love a good optical illusion and this is one of the best I've seen.

2. An interesting and thought provoking article on The War on Reason.

3. If you spend much time on the internet, you'll have probably noticed that on huge swathes of it civil debate appears to be a thing of the past. This Brain Pickings article on How to Criticize with Kindness might come in handy. — "let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.”

4. Socrates would like a quick word: Philosophy Infomercial.

5. This week's music recommendation is actually a podcast about a piece of music. In this week's episode of Song Exploder, Annie Clark (aka St.Vincent) breaks down her song New York. (A warning, it contains some explicit language!) 

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

ps. I'm taking a week off next week as I'll be on holiday. But fear not, Five Things will return the following week!

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. I know you've been thinking this too... Where are all the aliens?
    
2. Do you want to be more creative? Try pretending you're someone else: "Creativity is not an individual trait, but a 'malleable product of context and perspective.' Everyone can be creative, as long as they feel like creative people".
    
3. Self-healing clothes? Self- healing electronics? How about a self-healing Wolverine-like artificial skin? Researchers at the University of California, Riverside might have a fabric to make just the thing.
    
4. I really like this advice from Charlie Munger: "I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you." Are you a learning machine?
    
5. In the past week I've booked tickets to see two of my favourite musicians play shows in London. So this week's musical recommendation is a track by each of them. St Vincent performing Black Rainbows and Nils Frahm performing Toilet Brushes - More. Can't wait to see them both live again!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.