Hi everyone!

It has been yet another wild 7 days, so let me try to bring some sunshine to your inbox.

This week, I'm sharing some articles about making friends, Gen Z trends, and have a special offer for BrainPint readers that will help you unplug from feeds & save hours every week. 

Speaking of friends, I'm incredibly thrilled that my friend KP has been offered his dream job. He shows us that you can create your own luck by building in public. KP invested belief capital in me from the start and I'm grateful.

I'm working on making the newsletter as valuable as possible for you, so I would love your input in this survey. Thanks!

With gratitude,
Janel

Building An Influential Network Of Friends
I summarized 9 tips from Noah Kagan. Watch original video here. Top picks:

• Ask your friends for referrals - Ask your friends to introduce you to an interesting person and be specific about your ask)
• Reach out to up and comers - If you're successful in what you do and spot young, new talent, reach out to them and help them grow
  
• Add value without expectation - Use your talent to help improve others' workflows or support them where you can shine

How To Make Friends As An Adult
You'd be surprised how many people are open to connect if you take the initiative.

"To turn an acquaintance into a friend, start practising vulnerability....ask the other person questions to get them to share about themselves."

Writing Is Networking For Introverts - Piece by Byrne Hobart on how writing connects like-minded people

🗣️ Places To Meet Cool People

• Cuppa - 1-1 virtual coffees ☕️ with top tech talent sourced from Twitter
• Lunchclub - Curated 1:1 professional connections, driven by AI
  
• Meet Cafecito - Meet international creative entrepreneurs and employees working with tech
• BrainPint Community Match - Manual matches by yours truly!

2020 Gen Z Trends Report

Get a deep dive into Gen Z (born between 1995-2010) trends and shifts in the last 12 months. It's a fun, insightful look into the vocal, video-first generation that grew up online. The 116-page report highlights up & coming startups that are well-positioned to serve Gen Z.

25 Ways To Be More Creative
Creativity is a skill that can be improved with practice. You don't lack imagination, you just need to unlock it. Generate ideas. Fuse ideas. Engage with people who are different from you. (h/t Marie)

Six Spokes Theory - Strategy For An Optimal Life

Imagine your life as a wheel and ensure that you don't neglect any spoke. Don't overindex on a single area; all spokes are equally important.

How To Take Control Of Your Calendar
Your time is precious. Shape your calendar to get more meaningful work done. Here's a three-step guide to regain control of the time you spend in meetings:

• Identify what is critical
• Improve quality
• Edit frequency / duration

Spark Joy - Design Tools & Tips - A loaded repository of design tools & tips for devs (& non-devs) by BrainPint reader swyx. The fact that this collection is free is almost criminal. You can get illustrations, sounds, access to generators, fonts and more.

Daily.so - Connect with your friends & communities asynchronously using 30 second video check-ins. This project by BrainPint reader Kieran clinched 2nd place in Makerpad's T30 challenge. Do reach out to him if you're keen to try.

SpringUp Stories - A weekday newsletter with the latest insights from makers, no-coders and the passion economy. Realise the power you have to take action and make something great!

The History Of Animation
Beautiful timeline which brings us through the history of animation from BC to the current day. References classics like Disney, The Simpsons, Toy Story and more.
Like Numbers? We Got You
Fun daily statistics on this site. On Saturday, I learned that 7 million census takers are going to be deployed in China starting November to get an accurate count of 1.3 billion citizens.