COOL 2026

2026

Week 1

The new Apple TV intro was created using real glass apple logos, filmed as practical effects, then cleaned up digitally.

“If you embrace all the parts of yourself, you can create your own path.” ― Jon M. Chu

Can't Let Go by Kishi Bashi

Week 2

The Imagineering Story remains an interesting and insightful on every watch through. Must see documentary for anyone interested in design and experience of any kind.

“With every breakthrough discovery, past and present, comes a relaxed tendency toward maintaining something proven to work. As the saying goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But there lies today’s threat. The next generation of Imagineers must continue that innovative spirit. Exhibit the sheer desire to obsolete themselves and advance.” ― closing narration of the The Imagineering Story documentary

Children of the Omnissiah by Guilllaume David

Week 3

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in two episodes lays out the premise of the new series, establishes the characters, and adds the levity that's been missing in recent prior series. It's a welcome change to not have the the world ending every week. Holly Hunter is a delightfully irreverent captain and chancellor, Tig Notaro is back as Jett Reno and continues to be boss in every scene she's in.
The only disapointing thing is "This ain't MY trek, it must be stopped" reactions from traditional Trek fans who are ironically behaving like the very things the Trek universe stands against.

“The world doesn't happen to you, you happen to the world.” ― A philosophy that shifts focus from being a passive victim of circumstances to an active creator of your own reality, with the power to shape your life and impact on the world.

The Lava by Equateur

Week 4

Disneyland Handcrafted documentary showing the behind the scenes of creating Disneyland in 12 months. It strongly makes the point that Disneyland was not only a huge risk, it came together at the last moment with the talents of hundreds of talented artisians who were empowered to create and build. An antithesis to the focus tested and rigourously planned parks of today.

“I’ve been broke five times in my life, and one more won’t hurt.” ― Walt Disney on the Disneyland not succeeding and bankrupting both him and the company. Risks are worth taking.

Messy Hopes (dreams, flickering bright) - Extended Mix by Future Dynamic

Week 5

Shrinking Season 2 I put off watching this season as I didn't think it was going to live up to the first season. Pleasantly surprised to be completely wrong as it maintains a deft touch of being emotional, deep, and genuinely funny.

“AI today is unbelievably intelligent, and then shockingly stupid. You don't get to the moon by repeatedly building the tallest building in the world one inch taller, LLMs aren't going to learn common sense by reading more things.” ― Yejin Choi

Let It Happen by Tame Impala

Week 6

Tactics is the Disney Animation team that does optimisation across an entire show ranging from pipeline and workflows all the way to render efficiency and organisational structure. I'm introducing and advocating for this concept at my work.

“That's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.” ― Walt Disney

Dopamine by Robyn

Week 7

SolidJS is what React wishes it could be. All the best parts of react, but built on signals and with a simpler and more predictable mental model driving it.

“Accept people as they are, but place them where they belong. You are the CEO of your life, hire and fire and promote accordingly.” ― Anonymous

Captain by Carrellee

Week 8

Rick Rubin explaining how perfection is not actually desirable, honesty is.

“I'm confident with artistic expression because my only goal is to make something I like, and I know that I can keep working on it until I like it. In some ways, there's no pressure. It turns out that when you make something truly for yourself, you're doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience.” ― Rick Rubin

Panoramic View by AWOLNATION

Week 9

Ikea releasing a multitude of Matter over Thread devices. They're fast, reliable, and unbelievably cheap.

“One of the hardest things in animation is to hold your courage, because it goes long, it takes years. There are many opportunities to back down from the initial ideas.” ― Chris Appelhans, co-director of KPop Demon Hunters on staying true to what originally inspired the work.

More Than You by Class Actress

Week 10

Ansi Screen Saver for macOS that shows ANSI BBS art from the BBS era.

“Yes I spend a lot of time in my own head. Yes I think a lot. But it's not in an egotistical kind of way, it's in a tinkering like a scientist kind of way. I'm always trying to modify. I'm trying to think how can I be better? How can I approach my own brain the way that I approach my craft of free skiing? So that I can be better tomorrow than I was today.” ― Eileen Gu, continuing to be both practical and a legend.

Absolut by Equateur, Sophie-Tith

Week 11

Refactoring UI despite being seven years old this book could have been written yesterday, proving that good design is timeless. For anyone wanting to bridge the gap between developer and designer this is the way.

“Make stuff for yourself, there are probably other people out there just like you.” ― Jason Fried / 37 Signals

Run the Road by Santigold

Week 12

How Zero Gravity Spacewalks Are Filmed In Movies Adam Savage getting to see how they filmed Project Hail Mary and re-igniting the kid in me vicariously.

“There is no innovation or creativity without failure. Period.” ― Brené Brown

Legend - Yuko's Night Mix by Yuko Rade

Week 13

Redesign of the entire Apple Music UI Thoughtful and detailed breakdown of the issues in Apple Music and how to fix them. A surprising amount comes down to two simple things: lack of consistency, and lack of understanding what the user wants out of each screen.

“The biggest skill you can have is storytelling - not talking down, explaining up.” ― Scott Galloway

Samurai by Flecks

Week 14

PS Remote App enables me to play games in my home office from my PS5 in another room. Genuninely great experience.

“This isn’t temporary. There isn’t a natural stopping point for this technology. It’s going to keep getting better and the changes it brings are going to keep compounding.” ― Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic.

Kiss the Sky (feat. Wyclef Jean) by The Knocks, Wyclef Jean

Week 15

Ikea ALPSTUGA air quality sensor with Homekit support. Small and simple and works really well.

“Making good decisions comes from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” ― Mark Twain

Neverender by Justice, Tame Impala

Week 16

Mike Sunday is a graphic designer who perfectly describes the late 90's and 2000's era music and design. Somehow he's in my brain picking all the things I love and teaching me more about them and making me appreciate them even more.

“AI won't replace you, someone who knows AI will.” ― Scott Galloway

Damn Good Actress by Tiffany Stringer

Week 17

Claude Code analysing our financials and figuring out where all our household spending is going, pulling out the patterns and delivering us remarkable insight. When people talk of AI being the future, this kind of casual use giving astonishingly effective results is what they're talking about.

“Measuring productivity in time, to me, doesn’t really work because it’s not linear.” ― Maggie Rogers explaining how she switches between Resting and Making times. She fills Resting time with experiences and random follow-the-dopamine deep dive learnings that get her fired up for the Making times.

Non Believer by London Grammar

Week 18

Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland being able to take my 20 year old son through this ride and share in his first time experience of it was pure magic of the highest levels. The ride remains one of the best in the world, immersive long form storytelling combined with multiple wow moments and a heart pumping finale. 5 stars.

“Success is really about many, many failures. We make sure that we have a culture that we don’t judge, we expect to fail, we intend to fail, we plan to fail. We plan to fail many, many, many times.” ― Jon Snoddy / Imagineering

Longing for Lullabies (feat. Titiyo) by Kleerup, Titiyo

Week 19

Widows Peak The humour and subtle gags are a slow building delight.

“delulu is the solulu” ― Anonymous internet post nailing the vibe of the world right now.

Adderall by Creach

Week 20

Mix Tape game It's telling you a story and getting you involved in the telling. It's inventive and fun. It has haters saying it's not a game, but they're missing the point - it's all about experiencing the narrative by being involved in it, not in control of it.

“Trendy spaces optimise for excitement, and enduring spaces optimise for emotional attachment” ― Jeff Klein on the global private club boom

Human Feel by Deane

Week 21

Apple: The First 50 Years I've read a lot of books about Apple and what it was like on the inside, this book manages to reveal new information I haven't seen before whilst telling a good story of their growth over time.

“AI is made of people. It is made of data from people. And since we want to think of it as a new god, we don't want to see those people, so we want to keep that box shut. But when you open the box and reveal the people you can then deal with all kinds of issues; security, quality, hallucination” ― Bobby Hundreds / Global Creative Director for Disney

Wonderful Life by Gwen Stefani

2027

Cool

One cool tune, one cool thing, one cool quote. Every week.