The Monthly Edition: April

Maybe it was more sunlight, spring break, or Artemis II, but April brought a collective pep to our step. And to that we say: keep it coming!

In case you missed it, here are a few things we shared in April:

• Women are being driven to do Resumé Botox

• Why more and more people are jailbreaking their Kindles

• How to get rid of your embarrassing Gmail address

• The new genre of AI grift

If you don’t have a paid subscription, but would like to see more, we’ve removed the paywall on all articles from September, October, and November of last year. You might enjoy:

• Why an influencer at the top of her game said goodbye to the internet

• Simple steps to dramatically improve your phone photography

And as always, Monthly Editions are free to read.

In 2023, France introduced Bonus Réparation. It’s an anti-waste law aimed at making it more affordable to mend clothes and shoes. At the same time, it also helps preserve fading trade and craft skills.

Under Bonus Réparation, certified workshops offer direct discounts—so instead of paying €30 for resoling a pair of leather shoes, a customer would get an €8 discount and pay only €22. The program seems to be working:

“Coordinated by the non-profit Refashion and funded by contributions from manufacturers and brands under an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program, the discount is applied directly to the customer’s invoice at certified workshops or cobblers. It ranges from €6 for mending a tear in a garment to €25 for resoling leather shoes. The goal is to encourage people to repair and extend the life of their clothing and footwear, but it’s also helping to preserve valuable skills. In its first year, over 83% of the 826,000 repairs funded through the scheme were carried out by cobblers.”

You can read more about the program in Textile Exchange’s magazine.

Would you be more likely to repair your clothing and shoes if you had access to a program like this? Related, would you be more interested in learning a trade like clothing repair or shoe repair if you had access to a program like this?

• Taylor Swift just made everyone signed with UMG a windfall

• Impossible street art

• The quest for the best free restaurant bread

• These tiny live portraits are delightful

• A club you’re going to want to join

• Canada launched a plan to recruit, train, and hire 80,000 to 100,000 skilled trades workers

• Proof you need to get yourself some clay

The caption: “This looks cooler than A.I. visual effect.”

Agreed. A.I. could never. Click through to see.

If you’ve ever been to Alt Summit in person, you probably recognize Nicole, our hero photographer. Not only is her feed filled with her stunning work, she regularly shares tips on how to improve your own photography (you won’t believe what she shoots on an iPhone).

We just wished we lived in Toronto to join her on a hot girl photo walk.

Thank you for reading the monthly edition of Same Boat! We’re so happy you’re here. We hope this issue brought you inspiration, resources, knowledge, and joy—don’t hesitate to leave a comment and share your own recommendations. We love hearing what you’re thinking about these days and some of the topics you’d like to see us cover next.

As always, please feel free to forward this to a friend.

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