The Best of 2023: Gadgets, Gizmos, Books, Apps & More | The Growth Booth #101

Welcome to episode number 101 of The Growth Booth. Aidan Booth here, and today I'm talking about the favorite things that I've found, things I've discovered, apps, gizmos, gadgets, books, and some of the adventures I've had in 2023. To me, it's kind of mind boggling to think that here we are wrapping up 2023 and I'm talking about some of my favorite things from 2023 because it seems like just yesterday, we were kicking off the year, so it's gone pretty quickly. I hope that you've had a great year, there's still a little bit of time left, of course. So there's still time to get some more good things happening before we wrap up the year.

Now, the show today is going to be published as always on thegrowthbooth.com and you can head over to thegrowthbooth.com, find episode number 101 to see the video, to listen to the audio. I'm also going to publish it on the blog at aidanbooth.com, so if you want to read more than that, that's a way that you can do that. So I will be sharing a bunch of different books, as I said, gizmos, gadgets, apps, and more here today. Some of the things I'll share 100% free, and something's not free, and there's a broad spectrum of different things as well. So hopefully you find something of use that you can, you know, consider trying out for yourself. And if nothing else, then hopefully it'll give you a bit of an insight into what I've been up to.

So starting off with books, I've read a bunch of books this year, a lot. I don't know exactly how many probably 40 or 50. The way that I've been consuming most of them has actually been through audio through the Audible app. I buy them on Amazon, and then I listened to them in the Audible app, and I can listen to them when I'm running errands, when I'm driving in the car somewhere, when I'm going to the supermarket, and so on and so forth. I find it a great way to consume content and I really enjoy it. I also buy physical books as well, as you can see, if you're watching the video, I've got lots of books up behind me, and this is just scratching the surface of the big piles I've got throughout my house. So I like to listen to a book. If I really liked it, I'll buy it, and then sometimes I also read them on Kindle.

So the first book I've got on my list, and these are in no particular order, and to be honest, I could have had a couple of dozen here and it would be hard to say that one is better than the other. But the first one that I've got on the list is Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. If you're not familiar with Walter Isaacson, he has written biographies of some of the greatest entrepreneurs and minds to exist. I'm talking about people like Steve Jobs, he wrote the Steve Jobs book, which is also fantastic. He wrote a book about the life of Einstein, and other people as well. But this Elon Musk book, this biography is actually the second one that I've read, because Elon Musk had a biography come out, maybe I want to say, six or seven years ago, and that was interesting. But if you think about everything that's happened between now and then, this is this is a massive update that was needed. I mean, Elon Musk's different projects have charged forward. Space X, obviously, has gone on to become the most important company in getting things to space and the future of space travel. Tesla has become the most powerful auto brand in the world. He's also dealing with sustainable energy, AI. He talks a lot about in the book about how he sees Tesla more as an AI company in the long term because of all the artificial intelligence that they are able to capture through the cars. And of course, this year, Elon Musk also purchased Twitter, and the jury's out to see how that will go. But if his history has anything to go by, then he's probably going to end up turning Twitter, now X, into something amazing, obviously, not quite there yet. As I record this episode, X or Twitter as it was known is going through a few challenges, but anyway, this was an amazing book. Walter Isaacson sort of shadowed Elon Musk around for over a year I think, and had a lot of one-on-one conversations with Elon Musk, which are built into the book. So if you're intrigued by Elon Musk's story, then that's a good one to get.

The next book I've got here is this one here. If you're watching the video version, you'll be able to see this, it's called Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia, and Dr. Peter Attia talks about how you can sort of build yourself a healthier life. He talks about healthspan versus lifespan. Your lifespan is how long you live, how many years you're alive, and your healthspan is how many of those years you're able to have a life where you're fully functioning, able to do all the things that you want to do. He talks about the science behind how you can prolong the good years of your life, essentially. He's a doctor, but he's also someone who is an enthusiast about personal health, fitness, and really dives into the science behind aging and wellness and improving health and what you can do to live a healthier life. You can see on the cover here, it says, "Rethinking medicine to live better longer" and I think that's a really good summation of what the book is about. This very chunky book has a lot to it, but it's broken down into chapters where he'll talk about one specific area then move on to another so you don't have to read it from start to finish, but that one definitely made the cut for me.

The third one, completely jumping to a different genre again is The Storyteller by Dave Grohl. Dave Grohl was a member, was I guess, a member of Nirvana and is the frontman and founder of the Foo Fighters. Nirvana were a real industry-changing band in the '90s with Kurt Cobain, and they really changed the face of punk rock. And then when that all unraveled, Dave Grohl reinvented himself through the Foo Fighters and has become one of the biggest bands on the planet. Today, and in this memoir, he shares lots of tales from his youth, from the times with Nirvana, other bands who he has been a part of, and of course, the Foo Fighters and their journey, sort of navigating the treacherous waters of the music industry. Something that's really cool about this book is that it's narrated by Dave Grohl himself. So that makes it really cool, you can hear his voice, and it was just an amazing story. I've just got so much respect for what he's done and how he's done it. You can read the book to find out more.

The next one I've got, again, jumping to a completely different genre, is called The Algebra Of Happiness, and this is from a guy called Scott Galloway, who I first sort of stumbled upon through another book called The Four. Now The Four was about the four massive titans that are competing for world domination in the tech space, and these are Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple. He's someone who has become incredibly successful in his own life, and what he's tried to do in The Algebra Of Happiness is come up with different equations, almost like mathematical equations, if you like, for happiness in life and business. The reason that this book jumped out to me is because I'm always trying to find that, that happy sort of equilibrium, that balance in my life, and I think it's eye-opening when you read about someone who is one of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, I'm talking about Scott Galloway, and the kinds of things there that he thinks about when he's trying to balance out happiness. So The Algebra Of Happiness is the next one.

Another one that I've read, and this is not the first time I've read it in 2023, but I've added it to the list is this one right here, Zero To One by Peter Thiel, and Peter Thiel is one of the founders of PayPal along with Elon Musk, actually. This is a really thought-provoking book. It's about innovation, about entrepreneurship. It's about rethinking a way to found new companies, to start up new businesses, and build towards a tech-driven future. It's a really easy read that you can get through very quickly. And for me, each time I read it, I've probably read it three or four times now, I pick up something new. So I've just recently actually been through that one again so I wanted to add it to the list.

The sixth and final book that I've got on my shortlist here today is Surrender by Bono. Bono is the iconic U2 lead singer, and the book is his life journey and it's very introspective. He delves into his rise to fame, personal struggles along the way, talks about global activism, which he is involved in a lot. And now however you slice and dice it, U2 are arguably the most successful band to have put music out. They did it and got incredible music sales before music was even digital. So, you know, they are clearly legends in the music industry, and especially in the sort of rock space. This book was quite an insight into what they've done, what they've achieved, and the life of Bono in particular.

Moving on now to gadgets and gizmos. Now, we've done a lot of traveling this year, and one of the places we went was Disney World. One of the things that we didn't want to do at Disney World was be the parents who lost their kids. So to combat this, before going to Disney World, we purchased a couple of Apple Airtags. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the Airtags out there, they're little round devices, they're about the size of a quarter, and they allow you to track an item that they are attached to. So we attached these items, these Airtags, to our kids, there's little wristbands that you can buy. It's about the size of a small watch. We put these on our kids and made sure that we didn't lose them at Disney World. Our kids, to give you some more perspective, are seven years old and five years old, respectively. When they see something interesting, they have a tendency to run off and explore it, and we didn't want that happening at Disney World with the thousands of people that are roaming the parks. So these were really cool. I can imagine how that'd also be good for people who have a tendency of misplacing their car keys or their wallet or some other item because they are very cheap. I think they're only like $20 or $30 or something like that, and they can be attached to almost anything. You could put one on your dog's collar, for example, if you wanted to. They're really, really cool. So wanted to share the Apple Airtags.

The next thing that I purchased is another gadget. It's not really a gadget or a gizmo, but it's something that's pretty cool that I got this year. It's a foldable bike, it's one of these bikes that in about 20 seconds, you can fold it in half, you can put the seat down, turn it around, bend a bunch of things over and it makes the bike drop down from sort of being like a full-sized bike to something, which is a small box, essentially. The reason I got it is because I wanted to have something that I could quickly and easily throw into my car that I could use to go and ride my bike with my son and my daughter, for example. I wanted something that was going to be lightweight, sort of robust, and the one that I ended up deciding on is one of the ZiZZO bikes, and I'll include links to all of these items in the show notes and in the blog posts over at aidanbooth.com as well, so you can check them out. This ZiZZO bike, I bought it for under about $300. Now, these foldable bikes can go up to multiple thousands of dollars, but I think this one has got incredible bang for buck. It's well-made. So far, since I've been using it, it seems really reliable and durable. It was under $300 and something that I think I'm going to be able to get a lot of value out of. And like I say, it's small, its compact, and does the job.

The next thing I want to mention here, and this is not something that I've actually got myself, but I have spoken to lots of people that have got it, and Steve Clayton, my business partner is raving about it. And it's the Oculus Quest 3. Now, the Oculus Quest, VR goggles that you can put on and you really go into an immersive world. Now I have had the Oculus Quest 1, which I must have got like four or five years ago, but the Quest 3 compared to its predecessors offers much more enhanced processing power, much improved display. It's lighter, is more ergonomic, and it's just a big step forward in the world of virtual reality experience. Now, I think this one is interesting for sure, that Quest 3, but the one that I'm hanging out for which I think is going to dramatically change not just how we work I think potentially is the Apple VR goggles which have been announced and coming out in 2024. So something to look forward to there, and no doubt, you'll be hearing a lot about those.

Next thing I've got for you today, something completely irrelevant, I think to most of our listeners, but they are swim paddles. Now swim paddles are things, if you're watching the video, you can see them, I've just put them on my hands here that swim paddles, they are little paddles that go on your hands. And you can use them to generate more force when you're swimming. It's a swimming tool, essentially. Now, typically, these swimming paddles, they will go on your hand, and they'll have some elastic that goes around by hand to stop them from falling off when you're swimming. But these ones, again, if you're watching the video, you'll be able to see them. These ones don't have any of that. They rely on you having the correct technique when you're swimming to not fall off. I found these to be fantastic, again, really, really cheap, but for me that I do a lot of swimming, they definitely made my shortlist.

The next item I've got on the list is the Apple Homepod. Now, Apple have got the different speakers, and they've got a very, very small one about the size of a fist. Then they've got a much bigger one about maybe about the size of a child's head, for example, and they provide incredible bang for buck. I mean, the larger one costs around about $300, and the Mini Homepod speaker is around about $99 from memory. And these are not Bluetooth speakers, these are speakers that you plug in, you leave them plugged in, you can't like take it down to the park and listen to music or anything like that you live in plugged in. The music is beamed in from your device like your phone through Wi-Fi actually, and this is exactly what I needed. So Bluetooth speakers I've had in the past in my house have been challenging to use, because if I go to one end of the house, then the Bluetooth signal is not strong enough to reach to the speakers, but these ones here go through the Wi-Fi network, and you can have multiple speakers running at the same time, you can sort of set them up so they're in a network. And again, just incredible bang for your buck with those speakers.

I've actually got another one up here, I'll grab it. It's the Bang & Olufsen little Bluetooth speaker, and this is one that I use in my office when I want to listen to music. This one here provides some seriously good sound as well. Again, if you're watching the video, you can see it's a pretty small speaker there. But it provides some really, really high-quality sound. That was another one that I don't know if I got that this year or last year, but a good speaker.

The final item, physical product, I guess you could say that I've got on the list here is something related to travel. They are inflatable floor pillows for flights. If you saw the episode that I did a few episodes ago where I spoke about my best travel hacks, then you would have already heard me talking about these. What they are is they are inflatable pillows that go on the ground when you are traveling in a plane, and they sort of wedge in between your economy seat and the seat in front of you. They are for kids, and what they do is they ultimately create a platform. And if you inflate them, then your kids can sort of sleep, stretch the legs out without the legs falling down. You can put multiple of these next to one another and create this platform and it just makes kids being able to sleep through the night that much easier in economy class. So these have been a big one this year as well.

I wanted to speak briefly about some of the adventures, some of the travel adventures that I've had this year and then get on to sharing some of the best apps and web tools that I've used. I think you'll definitely get some value out of those. But just quickly about travel, I've done a huge amount of travel this year, not just for business but also with my family started out in New Zealand at the very beginning of the year. Just recently, I've been in United Arab Emirates, went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I went to see the Formula One and also catch up with Steve and some other business partners. In the middle of the year and my winter, went up to the Italian Alps and spent some time there. Also into Switzerland, Lugano, Lake Como. That was amazing. We went to Majorca. I had actually been to Majorca a long time ago but hadn't been with the kids. So we got some beach time in Majorca, which is in the Mediterranean just off of Spain. Went to Orlando to speak at an event, went to the Formula One in Miami, went to Chicago and Disney World in Orlando, also went with my wife on a trip just the two of us to Paris. In Argentina, we've done a bit of travel as well down to Patagonia. Another city and region called Cordoba as well. If I had to think about all that now, I would say that we did too much travel. I think it's important to find a balance in everything that you're doing, and I think that we probably did a little bit too much travel to the point where it almost became disruptive, I think, because we also had a lot of people visiting us in Argentina, and these are all things that can throw you off your routine.

I am so grateful to be able to have done all that travel though. It has definitely opened my eyes up to new places. The most surprising place that I went to was Dubai. I hadn't been to that region before and going to Dubai and seeing how advanced that city is, it's incredible. Haven't seen anything like it. It's got the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa I think it's called, which is incredibly tall. You see this skyscraper next to other skyscrapers around it, and it dwarfs them. That's how tall it is. The place I think that I would go back to in a heartbeat tomorrow would be for a family trip on my own or whatever would be the Italian Alps and Lake Como. Just incredible. And Paris, I’ll add Paris to that list. I'm a huge fan of Italy and France. We always have an amazing time there. My kids' favorite would be Disney World, I think, Orlando. They're little world nomads themselves, they love traveling, and they're getting pretty good at traveling, behavior-wise, I should say, but Disney World is obviously designed for them. So there are some of the adventures that that I had. I wanted to quickly drop them in there because they were a big part of my 2023.

Now on to my favorite apps and web tools. There are a bunch of new ones that I've used, and these are again, in no particular order, but I'll start out with one related to travel. This is called Flighty. Now the Flighty app, there's a free version and paid version. I've got the free version, it allows you to get insights into the situation or updates around a flight that you may be doing. It tells you what gate you're at, tells me if there are delays, and you can find out this information before it was publicly announced over the speakers at the airport, so I'm not sure exactly how they do it, but really, really cool and a valuable app if you're traveling, and even if you don't travel that much but travel sometimes. I think the flighty app is worth getting. It doesn't take doesn't take any time to set up. You just go in and start using it, add in your flight number and your travel date, and away you go.

Another app that I've recently got is called the Night Sky app. This has also got a free and a paid version, I've got the free version for this one. When you've got this app installed, you can point your phone up at the night sky and it will tell you, show you what those little stars or there's lights that you're seeing are. You can point it up and you can figure out exactly which of those is Mars, which of those is Jupiter, which of those is the Southern Cross, for example, if you're in the southern hemisphere, and so on and so forth. That's a really, really cool app. It's something that kids, I think, well, people of almost any age can really enjoy. So that's called the Night Sky app.

The next web tool or app that I wanted to mention here, actually a couple of them are related to AI. So the AI advancements this year have been incredible. We're going to be talking about this more over some of the upcoming episodes, but the Bing Image Creator is amazing. MidJourney is amazing. DALL-E is amazing for creating images that look real. I mean, that's just incredible. If you haven't used these, I would say head over first to the Bing Image Creator, you can just do a Google search for that "Bing image creator". Get the tool to create an image of anything. You can say, "create a watercolor of such and such" or "give me a photo-like quality image of a man working on his laptop in a busy airport" or whatever it might be. It's absolutely amazing to the point where you wouldn't know if it's an AI image or a photo. That's how good they have gotten. You can use these tools for all kinds of things like logos, for example, birthday invitations. They are just incredible.

Another online tool that I use, what's really a service, is IM Global, and I use this for insurance. It's saved us a couple of times this year, so on all the traveling that we've done. My daughter got sick when we were in Lugano, Switzerland, and we were able to go down to the local hospital, the Children's Hospital, we got her attended to, and it cost us about $700. We would have been $700 out of pocket if we hadn't had the insurance. But the insurance reimbursed us 100% for that cost. It's just really good peace of mind. I think the amazing thing for me about IMG is that the plans that we get are something like $3 or $4 per day per person, so I think it really is good bang for your buck. And recently, actually, when I was in Dubai, I got a bacterial infection. I was able to go down to the clinic there, any clinic, but I went to a clinic in the mall in Dubai, which, by the way, talk about advanced and being at the forefront of technology. The hospital, the medical clinic that I went to in Dubai was incomparable to anything that I've been before: incredibly efficient, didn't have to wait around, the facilities were amazing, I was in and out in 10 seconds with a prescription to get the different antibiotics that are needed. And again, it was actually pretty cost-effective, I think it cost about $300, $400, but which for all the stuff that they gave me I thought was pretty good. But again, that was just covered by IMG, so it saved me again. And you know, paying $3 or $4 a day – really can't argue with that.

The next one that I've got is Duolingo. Now, if you've ever tried to learn a language or want to learn a language, Duolingo is a cool little tool that you can have in your pocket to help you with that. For me, it's mainly about keeping fresh with vocabulary, learning new vocabulary, and can guide you through as a supplementary tool to some other kind of learning. I spoke a little bit about Duolingo in an earlier episode that I had where I was sharing my story with learning Italian this year and how I tried to learn it and actually did learn it in eight weeks. I continue to study Italian, and Duolingo is something that I use from time to time. I don't use every day anymore, but at one point for eight weeks straight, I was using it every day and found it fantastic for really building up vocabulary.

I think the most game-changing, life changing app that I've discovered in 2023 or maybe at the end of last year even is Chat GPT. If you're not using Chat GPT, you have to check this out. I've got the app on my phone. I use it as a go-to resource for information. I use it for all kinds of things. I've used it for planning some of the holidays that we've done. I've used it for learning Italian, I've used it for finding out history of different things. So recently, when I was in Dubai, I didn't know much about the rulers of that area, and I used it to learn about that. I've used it for copywriting, marketing, product design, and so much more. Chat GPT, I just can't get enough of it. I use it on my phone. I also use it on my computer as well. Watch this space because Chat GPT is going to continue to change the way that we live our lives. I think that's my opinion.

So what are your favorites for 2023? I would love to hear from you. Send me an email to team@thegrowthbooth.com. I read every single email that comes in there, or leave a comment over at aidanbooth.com. Find this blog post and leave a comment. So that's a wrap for this episode. By the way, in the next couple of weeks, we are kicking off our 12-Day Giveaway. And you can find out more about that by going to the12daygiveaway.com. This is something that we do each year in December. Make sure you get involved in that. We're going to be giving away over $12,000 in prizes and a lot of good content with no strings attached over 12 days. So again, you can find out about that by going to the12daygiveaway.com That's it for this episode. I'll see you in the next episode of The Growth Booth. Bye for now.