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There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia. — Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens Of Titan
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‘The peak of peak attention…’
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1 min read
“The peak of peak attention can be assigned an exact date: Sunday, September 9, 1956, when Elvis Presley made his first appearance on television, on CBS’s Ed Sullivan Show. Its 82.6 percent share of viewers has never been equaled or bettered.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
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The fascinating history of the pencil ✏️
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2 min read
“The pencil is a very perfect object,” says pencil obsessed Caroline Weaver in this TED video where she explains the history of the pencil. The origin of the pencil goes back to the innovative applications of graphite. Farmers and shepherds used graphite sticks wrapped in sheepskin and paper to mark their animals. In 1795, French painter Nicolas-Jacques…
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You can count me in as one of the people that succeeds from an analog to-do list. I’ve tried countless to-do apps, and none of them push me to get stuff done like the written word. Keep yourself honest by adopting the bullet journal system, if only to remind yourself what actually deserves your attention.…
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How audiobooks are made
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1 min read
Susy Jackson is one of the narrators behind Audible’s audiobooks. In this video, she shares some of the tips and trick she uses to record audiobooks, like underlining character names and noting places where she might need to alter her voice to match the verb (e.g. ‘whispering’). “It’s this weird mental trick of staying really…
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This post may contain affiliate links. Please see the disclosure for more info. Malcolm Gladwell’s first-ever online writing course is now available courtesy of MasterClass. In the class, Gladwell analyzes his own best-selling books like Blink and The Tipping Point to unveil his thinking and creative process. In 24 lessons, the influential author will teach how you to discover, examine, and…
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“Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design.” — Dieter Rams
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‘Don’t shy away from discomfort’
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2 min read
“Don’t shy away from discomfort. Enter it, especially if it’s a potential door to progress. When I picked up those paint supplies as a suddenly jobless thirty-year-old with three young kids and without enough savings to coast, it was a very uncomfortable move. The left side of my brain was screaming at me to go…
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‘If I don’t try to tell it, it risks not being told’
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1 min read
“What has prompted me to write over the years is the hunch that something needs to be told and that, if I don’t try to tell it, it risks not being told. I picture myself not so much a consequential, professional writer, as a stop-gap man.” — John Berger, Confabulations
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Margaret Atwood teaches creative writing
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2 min read
This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you sign up to the course I may get a small fee as part of the transaction. Please see the disclosure for more info. Not only is the “Prophet of Dystopia” Margaret Atwood writing a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, she is also teaching an online course…
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Illustrations for Amazon Prime Day
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1 min read
THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE SEE THE DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO. Whether’s the art in Apple’s app store or Amazon’s prime day gifs, I continually to be amazed by some of illustrations coming out of the world’s biggest brands. The ones above appear on Amazon’s giphy channel to help promote Amazon Prime Day,…
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Freedom is slowing down
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2 min read
It’s a canard to think that you must use an electronic device for everything productive. A computer is a doing machine, not a thinking machine. Your best thoughts happen when you’re disconnected, in the shower or on a walk. They also happen when you slow down, pen in hand letting each idea match the pace…