by Matthew Guay · February 15, 2022 · #notes #writing We don’t write things down to remember them. We write them down to forget. Like a hunter/gatherer stashing their prey, the ideas and the links we
Putting Ideas into Words February 2022 Writing about something, even something you know well, usually showsyou that you didn't know it as well as you thought. Putting ideasinto words is a severe test.
A few years ago, a young writer asked me if I had any tips for an aspiring journalist. My first instinct was to say no. My career has been full of hard work but also quirky luck, and I think everybody
Updated at 2:45 p.m. ET on October 28, 2021 In science fiction, the end of the world is a tidy affair. Climate collapse or an alien invasion drives humanity to flee on cosmic arks , or live inside a s
Q: Who has the most valuable information on the internet? A: Del.icio.us has the most valuable information on the internet Why? What amazon has done for its products, del.icio.us has done for the worl
We’ve spent 130 years indoctrinating kids with the same structure. Now, as some of us enter a post-lockdown world, I’d like to propose a useful (though some might say radical) way to reimagine the cur
Manhattan Island, New York, to scale South Georgia Island Iceberg A68a 100 Km Manhattan Island, New York, to scale South Georgia Island Iceberg A68a 100 Km Manhattan Island, New York, to scale South G
Do you remember your first birthday party? That’s pretty unlikely, even if you have pictures to remind you. So what’s all the hoopla for? Why the cake and the pony and the rest? It’s pretty clear that
The arc of the moral universe is long. And winding. Sometimes it zigzags. Sometimes it goes in a circle. Sometimes it misses its exit and has to make a U-turn. Sometimes it gets confused listening to
A review of Where Is My Flying Car? by J. Storrs Hall November 6, 2020 · 12 min read Suppose you were to reach into the mirror universe, where everything is inverted, and pull out a book tha
Pre-election Trump rally in Miami, along ‘Calle Ocho’ and through the historical heart of Cuban Miami. Whether it be paella or revolution, nothing that is Spanish is ever simple. -Henri Verneuil, ‘Un
Editor’s Note: “First Drafts” are attempts to work through tensions in our own thinking in real time, with you, the crowd, as our interlocutors. Please feel free to challenge us in the comments. If yo
Play is an essential way of learning about the world. Doing things we enjoy without a goal in mind leads us to find new information, better understand our own capabilities, and find unexpected beauty
Contrary to the promise made by this combined political/sewing machine ad, we again have no evidence of white improvement ( Image courtesy Cornell Library ) Share Here is what we know right now: The P
If Biden wins, it is not going to feel like you want it to feel. That’s what I wrote in the piece that went up yesterday on MSNBC, about the two sets of plans that people were having to hold in their
This is the Sunday edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here . If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing . There
Dear A.G., It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times. I joined the paper with gratitude and optimism three years ago. I was hired with the goal of bringin
There are many ways in which this election might portend the future, but there’s a seemingly small issue — only on the ballot in Oregon and the District of Columbia — that’s a sleeper, it seems to me,
‘Slow down, you move too fast … ’ – ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’ (1966) by Paul Simon We worship efficiency . Use less to get more. Same-day delivery. Multitask; text on one device w
Time, like life, hasn't stopped under lockdown. It only feels that way. Amidst the pervasive anxiety about illness and economic hardship, it can be easy to miss somewhat subtler forms of distress — li
Background Anna Quindlen is an author, journalist, and opinion columnist. She originally delivered this speech as the commencement address to the class of 1999 at Mount Holyoke College. 1 Note: Thanks
The desk on the top of Hancock Hill is metal and dark gray, maybe from the sixties. Its drawers are banged up, and its top is graffitied with initials. When you get to the desk, someone might already
This is Chapter 10 in a blog series. If you’re new to the series, visit the series home page for the full table of contents. Part 5: A Dangerous Trend “The gentle downward slope gets steeper and imper
This past summer, I booked a plane ticket to Los Angeles with the hope of investigating what seems likely to be one of the oddest legacies of our rapidly expiring decade: the gradual emergence, among
Buying Christmas gifts for you friends, family, and loved ones is always hard—and after yet another turbulent year it looked like maybe it was finally time to just cancel the holidays! But things are
In a digital world that clamors for clicks, news is sensationalized and “facts” change all the time. Here’s how to discern what is trustworthy and what is hogwash. *** Unless you’ve studied it, most o
I put on a pair of wool socks, slippers, mittens, earmuffs, and a surgical mask, remove my shirt, and open the door of a coffin-sized chamber, thereby releasing vapor into the room. I glance up at the
December 2019 Before I had kids, I was afraid of having kids. Up to that point Ifelt about kids the way the young Augustine felt about livingvirtuously. I'd have been sad to think I'd never have child
John Smith making another title look like child’s play (no audio) From 1994-1995 I had the great pleasure of training with wrestling legend John Smith, 2-time gold medalist and 4-time world champion (
The constellation Orion is one of the most recognizable patterns in the night sky, visible around the world. But if you’ve looked at Orion recently and thought something seemed off, you’re not wrong:
In the first week of the second decade of the third millennium, it was 68 and sunny southeast of Baghdad. At an outpost known as Contingency Operating Station Hammer, intelligence analysts for the U.S
November 2019 Everyone knows that to do great work you need both natural abilityand determination. But there's a third ingredient that's not aswell understood: an obsessive interest in a particular to
Performance reviews are designed to motivate and bring the best out of our teams, but they often do the opposite. Here’s how to bring out the best in your people. *** If you ask people what’s wrong wi
“This could save lives, cure depression, help alcoholism, get people off opioids—why wouldn’t I want to be invested?” Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary is sitting across from me in a restaurant talking ab
This wallpaper trades money and battery life for increased charisma and personal longevity (full explanation in Step #6). The Very, Very Complete Guide to Productivity, Focus, and Your Own Longevity C
The obvious benefit to working quickly is that you’ll finish more stuff per unit time. But there’s more to it than that. If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mi
If something is true in one field it’s probably true in others. Restricting your attention to your own field blinds you to how many important things people from other fields have figured out that are
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