4/ I'm 3 weeks in and love it. The Brick itself is an NFC device and doesn't require a battery or any charging so it's easy to deal with. Highly recommended! See link for how to get one (it's not an affiliate link and I get nothing if you click on it -- I'm just a big fan!)

getbrick.app

3/ I set up a "Sleep / Wake" profile that blocks all the dumb phone things I waste time on when I go to bed or after I wake up. The Brick is in another room so to un-Brick, I would have to go touch the Brick. Instead, with the dumb stuff blocked, I've been ending/starting my day reading books.

2/ Brick is like ScreenTime in spirit but if, for example, you set up an "out to dinner" profile and leave the Brick at home, you are locked out of whatever apps you blocked while you're at dinner because you can't access those apps until you tap the Brick again. (You get 5 "emergency" un-bricks.)

he likes mariachi quite a bit!

I use Rev.com for this. I've transcribed 100s of hours of interviews, mostly from conducting interviews in 360s in my coaching work. Another way is to use ChatGPT voice mode and tell it you're going to read out some text. It'll capture the text in the process and you can just cut and paste it.

more mundane. an IRS form for my coaching business!

get ‘em all in this book www.goodreads.com/book/show/66...