Struggling to get something for that special someone? Or that average someone who you just don’t know who to shop for? Or maybe you just totally forgot about the office Secret Santa that you signed up for while you were still half-asleep three Mondays ago, right before you downed the triple-shot coffee you bought to somehow, please God, somehow wake you up. Whatever it is, you need a gift and you need a gift stat, but all the guides you’ve been checking out are either weirdly personal, too expensive, or just don’t feel right. What do you get someone that’s pretty much never going to go wrong? At SignCast, we have an answer for you. Our whole team collaborated for this essential gift guide just for you– full of cool, educational gift we think anyone would love to receive.
The Book Of Romans from the Bible is my favourite book as it has helped me understand further into human nature, my own condition, how we are able to be justified and more about the character of God. Also, the battle between our flesh and our spirit. This has given me a new perspective on life, because knowing further into how we are made and the struggles we go through makes a 180-degree difference when it comes to making decisions in our day to day life. This book has changed my outlook on some of the most fundamental questions and I strongly recommend it for anyone seeking to know more about the subject. It’s also known to be the most profound books in existence.
-Andres, Marketing Manager
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
You like writing? You like reading? Perfect. Chuck Klosterman, one of the most prolific writers of our generation, has an incredible and extensive writing background. Starting out as a newswriter, he became one of Spin Magazine’s best rock and roll music writers and analysts. Now he writes essays and churns out another brilliant book every couple years or so, but it’s always a quality analysis of current pop culture tropes and references. This particular book is his first, and offers and fascinating look into base-level cultural situations. Klosterman analyses The Real World, serial killers, and football, offering a different opinion, through, essentially, some type of looking glass, where things like reality television hold as much importance in modern society as the presidential elections. This book offers new and exciting ways to look at and analyze pop culture, and will encourage any writer to clean up their act and write more persuasively. With often insightful, funny, and quirky sentences and opinions, Klosterman writes a book that’s hard to put down and is sure to inspire any person who wants to look at writing as more than just a hobby.
-Sofie, SEO & Social Media Manager
The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
I personally like reading about education and the assessment of various teaching methods.
This book addresses some underlying issues regarding public school systems: teachers were ordered by their superiors – non-educator administrators – to follow curriculum obediently, and the evaluation of students’ intelligence relied merely on standardized, multiple choice tests, just to name a couple. Education systems have placed less emphasis on the arts, the humanities and physical education; they have demonstrated a narrow-minded emphasis on improving reading and math scores. This book triggers readers to wonder why the world has evolved so quickly – think of all the inventions made in the past century, and all the jaw-dropping activities we can do with technology – but the teaching system and pedagogy has stubbornly remained unchanged.
-Vivian, Administrator
Mind Hacks by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb
Mind Hacks is a great book that explains in easy to process explanations the inner mechanisms of the brain and how it works. A lot of the way we process, store, recall, and interpret information is invisible/unknown to us; it just works. With this book, you can breakdown, understand, and even alter these mechanisms to make yourself more efficient and proficient in everyday life.
Among the 100 hacks in this book, you’ll find: how to release eye fixations for faster reactions, see movement when all is it, feel the presence and loss of attention, mold your body schema, and more.
It’s an easy and interesting guide to understanding the mechanisms of your brain that I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn a little more about their body.
-Randy, Warehouse Manager
We all know that person who never wants to stop learning. That person, who, if they had a choice, would love to be in school forever. Unfortunately, education can get expensive, and sometimes, all the stuff online isn’t the greatest. Luckily, there’s edX. For the person who loves to learn, I’d get them a gift certificate or enroll them in a couple of courses related to their field of interest from edX, a website company that offers courses on a wide variety of topics and subjects from a large amount of fields. You’ll be sure to find something for anybody here, whether they want to be a scientist or a linguist. Offering courses from Berkeley and Harvard, among others, there’s not a learner in sight who wouldn’t be delighted at this gift.
-Shashank, Web Developer
A yearly subscription to Laracasts
It’s “like Netflix for your career!” Know somebody who’s always going to be a high-roller, someone who prioritizes work and career above everything else? It’ll be hard to find a better gift than this. Particularly suited for coders and all those who loves computers and software, Laracasts offers interesting videos to help people learn in real-time, and a yearly subscription gives them access to all the great and informative content that Laracasts has in store. With over a thousand videos and casts available, and tons more being updated and uploaded regularly, there’s nothing a programmer would love more to help expand their skillset.
-Jesse, Systems Development Coordinator