đĄ WiseUp! Vol. 18 â Time to rethink, refresh and get organized!
This week, we're helping you step up your organization game, just in time for a mid-year refresh. We'll also show you how to make your home screen aesthetic with our Readwise widget. Plus, get a peek at our esoteric Slack emoji reactionsâcan you guess what movie we have in its entirety as a gif? You have until the end of this email.
On the app side, we fixed broken documents, faulty Table of Contents and mysterious blank screens. We also improved parsing by fixing how we handle sites like WSJ. Read on for all the details or check out our log of weekly improvements.
Before we get into the tipsâŚ
đ Let's start with a reading recommendation
Maybe youâre not Actually Trying
Cate Hallâlawyer, poker player, composer, and COOâmade waves last year when her first Substack post, How to be More Agentic went viral and became a hit in our weekly Wisereads. This week, sheâs back with a provocative piece on selective agency. âItâs tempting to believe that youâre Actually Trying, that youâve brought the full weight of your genius to bear on the problem. You might even take some pride in the struggle. Like rigid posture, the strain feels like correctness. But struggling is not evidence that youâve tried everything. To the contrary, the continuous need for willpower may be the sign of a badly-engineered life.â
From the support inbox
Have questions about using Readwise or Reader in your workflow? We'd love to be your guide! Reply to this email with your question and you might be featured in an upcoming issue. Even if your question isnât featured, weâll respond to every message.
â A Reader question from Carlo:
How can I highlight graphs and maps?
Sometimes a picture says more than wordsâuse the snapshot tool to grab and save the most important part of a PDF.
On your computer, click the small icon in the top left corner of the PDF, or press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S. Then click and drag your mouse around what you want to capture. On mobile, tap the icon in the top right corner, then press and slide your finger across the area you want to keep.
â A Readwise question from Jay J:
Is there an easy way to check my Readwise highlights on my phone, other than through email?
Keep your favorite book quotes and insights close all day longâright on your iPhone home screen. The Readwise widget (iOS only) rotates highlights from your library every few minutes, offering gentle reminders of the ideas that matter most. Itâs a thoughtful way to stay inspired and get a nudge to keep up your Daily Review streak.
(And to our Android friendsâhang tight, we've got a trick coming your way!)
đ New help doc of the week
Organize your feeds into folders on mobile
Itâs easy to drag and drop your feeds into folders in the web and desktop apps, but what about when you want to organize on the go? This week, Cayla updated our organization guide to include more information about how to manage your feedsâno matter your device.
đŹ New video of the week
Need a Mid-Year refresh?
Itâs never too late in the yearâor lifeâfor a fresh start! This week weâre re-sharing one of Erinâs most popular videos, which will teach you how to refresh your Reader account just in time for summer vacation đď¸
đ° May 24 - May 30 updates
What's new in Reader and Readwise
đ Fixed Broken Documents â Tristan and Tadek fixed a glitch that caused our servers to get backed up while doing large imports, which caused some documents to come in looking empty. These documents should now be properly parsed.
đŚ Fixed Twitter Threads â Tristan fixed a bug with Twitter thread saving where sometimes only one tweet would come through. They should save properly now.
đ Fixed EPUB Contents â You can now navigate through the Table of Contents for EPUBs added after May 15, thanks to Mitch.
đśâđŤď¸ Fixed YouTube Fade â You can now read the text at the beginning of YouTube transcripts more easily. Andrew removed the fade effect that sometimes got stuck there.
âď¸ Fixed Highlight Resizing â Clicking highlight resize handles no longer causes the highlight to become invisible, thanks to Adam.
đ Fixed PDF Selection â Arek fixed a bug that could break the PDF selection tool. You should now be able to reliably select and snapshot specific areas of PDFs, like charts and images.
đ¨ Fixed Styling Toggle â The button to toggle original styling shouldnât jerk when transitioning anymore, thanks to Rasul.
⏠Fixed Blank Screen â Artem fixed a glitch with one of our deploys, which caused TestFlight users on iOS 7.8 to see a blank screen when trying to use the app.
đ Parsing Updates â Krzys made improvements to how Reader handles relative links. He also fixed up posts from wsj.com, heise.de, royalroad.com, habr.com, flip.it, and abc.es.
đ Three featured finds
From support specialist Erin
Something to read đ
Erin is revisiting the American classics, including John Steinbeckâs lesser-known short story âThe Chrysanthemums.â Unlike Steinbeckâs other novels, the moral of âThe Chrysanthemumsâ has been widely disputed. If you read it, youâll have to let us know what you think đ
Something to focus đ§
Erinâs been taking creatine more regularly to improve her lifts at the gym, but one benefit she didnât expect was an overall improvement in her mood and focus. As it turns out, creatine has a whole host of brain related benefits â particularly for women!
Something to unwind đą
Now that itâs getting warm, Erinâs been enjoying evening walks with Hazel Scott as the background soundtrack. So far, this song is her favorite.
đŹ From the Readwise group chat
Company culture hidden in Slack emojis
What do Larry David, Aragorn, and the entire Bee Movie (2007) have in common? They're all part of a carefully selected Slack emoji collection we're proud to share with you today. What can we sayâsometimes the best reaction is hidden in an anthropomorphic bee film!
See you next week!
Warmly,
the Readwise customer support team