This whole thread is great, but we can't let ourselves forget how valuable random inspiration is for our creative brains. Serendipity only happens by living life and noticing things that a robot would never know to spoon-feed you.
Jay Tholento circle back to magazines, during Dreamsettler development I bought a set of ~2001-2002 recording magazines from and it is shocking how useful the information was. not only for worldbuilding (what software/hardware was popular, production trends, etc.) but also just generally great timeless info