reading
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The book look
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1 min read
Hopping from one book cover to another, we taste the one that deserves the second look. The anti-library sells in images, the library promotes with an invisible hand, delivering the richest information to the most interested bidder. The barest pages enthuse one and equips them with the knowledge they need, curiosity quenched. Instagram may take…
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‘The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it’
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1 min read
“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more…
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Keep them guessing
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1 min read
They say write to be understood. But what’s the point in spelling it all out? Said author William Faulkner in an interview with the Paris Review: INTERVIEWER Some people say they can’t understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them? FAULKNER Read it four…
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Begin with a bookshelf
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1 min read
Build a board of long-distance advocates. These can be authors, leaders or personal heroes of yours you might never meet. You’ll never share coffee, perhaps, but their books and ideas can impact your career. I’ve never met him, but author Steven Pressfield greatly impacted the hustle investment of my Career Savings Account. I never would have…
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Medicating off the placebo
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1 min read
If you want to instantly feel better, step into a hospital. The placebo works every time. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Hospitals can make the healthy feel a bit ill. Does anyone like hanging out in hospitals? Placebo is a mere expectation. It helps only because we think it helps. But that psychological boon could…
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Nostalgic for bookstores
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1 min read
Our online identities have become our real-life identities, one where the rapidity of instant communication breaks down the slow pace of life. Tech makes us impulsive and drains our patience–we demand things with a click of a button and expect a drone to deliver them the same day. So it’s no surprise that some people want…
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‘Even with an entire dictionary in one’s head, one eventually comes to the end of words’
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1 min read
“Every sentence is a wispy net, capturing a few flecks of meaning. The sun shines without vocabulary. The salmon has no name for the urge that drives it upstream. The newborn groping for the nipple knows hunger long before it knows a single word. Even with an entire dictionary in one’s head, one eventually comes…
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“In coming to New Mexico, I had unexpectedly felt myself an alien—an immigrant—in my own country, and this lithic scatter reinforced this feeling. I was reminded that we Americans are interlopers on this continent; that we have built our great and towering civilization on the wreckage of a past that we know almost nothing about…
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Information resurfaced with Readwise
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1 min read
The glut of information means that we need to review things more than ever. And one of the most useful tools I’ve come across is Readwise. Each day or weekly (up to you), it emails you a dose of your Kindle and Instapaper highlights. Rereading through them not only reminds you of the interesting passages…
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The reading brain in a digital world
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2 min read
How often do you print something out just so you can take the time to read it with more focus? In an interview with The Verge, UCLA neuroscientist and author of the forthcoming book Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne Wolf explains what tech does to the reading brain. This is a…
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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 gutless algorithm
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1 min read
In today’s age, you get picked (and judged) by algorithms and your number of social media fans. No matter your unique talent, it is the statistics that predetermine your success. But the element of surprise is not over. John Hammond discovered Billie Holiday, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan at the clubs. As a staunch…