From Hanukkah to Christmas, to Kwanzaa to Lunar New Year, consumers spend the winter months in frantic attempt to find the perfect gifts.
Sure, it is easy to fall into the trap what would have you assume that a female secret santa would like a scented candle or that a male secret santa would like golf accessories, but there is absolutely no reason that you must. The more advanced among us are encouraged to actively seek out gift options that fly in the face of stereotypes; go ahead, buy the baby girl her first toy truck or the baby boy a doll. Consider giving your favorite home chef a cookbook featuring holiday dishes from a faith tradition outside of their own or the youngest person on your list a book that explains the story behind a holiday that they do not observe. Are you buying a doll for a child who is not white? In many ways the beauty of this season is the bevy of rituals, customs, and fantastical stories that accompany it. More often, the recipient graciously accepts the gift, careful not to offend, with full intention to stuff it in a drawer, never again to see the light of day.
2. Public speaking. One-on-one communication is vital, but so is one-to-many. Yet, so often, people's mediocre presentation abilities get in the way ...
But the most successful people train themselves to see the opportunity in every problem, instead of the problem inside every opportunity. The most successful people on the planet often describe themselves as lifelong learners. So, the most successful people among us seek out opportunities to present, to speak, and to share ideas. And frankly, a lot of fun to get better at. And the more you learn, the better armed you are for what comes next. Writing is the key to thinking things through. Everything in life can be a negotiation. Maybe the people you imagine include someone you've worked with, or been fortunate to recruit as a mentor. Among the crucial skills is the ability to break down seemingly insurmountable problems into much more manageable tasks. People won't remember what you say or do, so much as they remember how you make them feel. One thing people do remember: when people treat them with generosity. But, there's more to writing than communicating.
Colorful geometric illustration containing a person holding up a smartphone to take a picture. ILLUSTRATION: YAZ BUTCHER; Cameron Getty; GETTY IMAGES.
I found photos of the details needed to log in to my bank account. When Google limited accounts to 15 gigabytes of storage, I started [paying for more](https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-google-one/). During the process—and thousands of "delete" taps—three things stood out: My photos collection unknowingly includes a lot of sensitive personal information (both about me and others); I don't need to keep so many photos; and wrestling my collection into shape frees up a lot of Deleting thousands of photos was a manual, tedious process. Each of these presents a risk. There are tens of thousands of photos—it’s impossible to say how many exactly—and they are entirely handled by Google. I am not the only one. For the past six weeks, I’ve spent around a dozen hours deleting thousands of photos that had been uploaded to my Google Photos account in the last half-decade. You might pick the best photo and share it on WhatsApp or Instagram and then never think about the rest of them ever again. My photo archive goes back to the early 2000s when everything was captured using an eight-megapixel digital camera. [Google Photos app](https://www.wired.com/story/how-tame-your-smartphone-pic-overload-google-photos/) to upload and store billions of pictures and videos. Now is the time to stop being an
Colorful geometric illustration containing a person holding up a smartphone to take a picture. ILLUSTRATION: YAZ MONET BUTCHER; Cameron Getty; GETTY IMAGES.
I found photos of the details needed to log in to my bank account. When Google limited accounts to 15 gigabytes of storage, I started [paying for more](https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-google-one/). During the process—and thousands of "delete" taps—three things stood out: My photos collection unknowingly includes a lot of sensitive personal information (both about me and others); I don't need to keep so many photos; and wrestling my collection into shape frees up a lot of Deleting thousands of photos was a manual, tedious process. You might pick the best photo and share it on WhatsApp or Instagram and then never think about the rest of them ever again. [Google Photos app](https://www.wired.com/story/how-tame-your-smartphone-pic-overload-google-photos/) to upload and store billions of pictures and videos.