An attribute was the single object — occasionally the single gesture or animal — that told a viewer which saint they were looking at. It was visual shorthand, compressed from an entire hagiography into one recognizable element. Catherine’s wheel: the instrument of her attempted martyrdom. Jerome’s lion: the wild animal he calmed in the desert by pulling a thorn from its paw. Stephen’s stones: the instrument of his execution following accusations of blasphemy.

We talk about "trusting our gut" as if it's a single, reliable compass. But Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs, makes a crucial distinction. Our "gut feelings" stem from two very different sources: instinct and intuition. Because they feel so similar (fast, automatic, sometimes emotional), we treat them the same. But overlooking the difference can lead to poor decision-making.

Murdle is a daily logic puzzle where you solve murders. It feels like an SAT question meets Murder, She Wrote. You get a grid, a handful of suspects (what Karber does with color names would make Professor Plum blush), and you deduce whodunit using classic logic. It’s a simple format that might go down as just another Wordle knock-off.  But Karber won my heart by demonstrating his love and respect for the classic murder mystery genre.

In an age of AI-generated images, deepfakes, and algorithmically curated reality, the ability to look closely isn't just aesthetic — it's survival. Media literacy expert Renee Hobbs argues that close looking is foundational to critical thinking: "If we can't slow down enough to actually see what we're looking at, we can't evaluate it, question it, or think critically about it."

When Ring's Super Bowl ad featured its new "Search Party" technology — using networked doorbell cameras to find a lost yellow lab named Milo — the backlash was swift. But the response that interested me the most came from Matt Nelson, the human behind the beloved Internet institution We Rate Dogs.

The title of a painting isn't a label. It's a creative act with the same weight and consequence as choosing cadmium red over burnt sienna. A great title  doesn't reinforce what you already see, it reveals something you couldn't see without it. What if you approached your brand name with that same intention?