“What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary — property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady…
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“I had no good reason not to take it up,” he said of a big decision. “And it kind of terrified me to imagine myself spending the rest of my life tinkering on the margins of the small arguments.” Link: Embrace the Irony Image: Ed ###
Read MoreA conversation with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker. Interviewer: The role of an editor is much broader today. Is there anything you feel uncomfortable doing, or is there anything you’re doing that you hadn’t expected to enjoy? D.R.: I enjoy all of it to one degree or another. There are days when you…
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The “Will I regret it in the future?” mindset can be very helpful in making decisions. From a New York Times article on protests in Hong Kong: “I’m not sure if this protest will really affect the decision by China, but I’m sure if I don’t come I will regret it in the future,” said…
Read MoreFrom David Mitchell, the author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks: “One of the questions I always try to keep in the front of my mind is to ask why would anyone want to read this, and to try to find a positive answer for that. People’s time, if you bought it off them,…
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“Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power. Power and money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making monumental architecture. I love to make monuments, too, but I thought perhaps we can use our experience and knowledge more for the general public, even for…
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From a reader’s discussion to a book I’ve been reading on tour, Orfeo by Richard Powers: Interviewer: “You mention close listening and focused attention. I found the study that you referenced about our loss of focus to be fascinating and disturbing.” “When all of us can listen to every piece of music that was ever…
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“That’s the promise: you will live more curiously if you write. You will become a scientist, if not of the natural world than of whatever world you care about. More of that world will pop alive. You will see more when you look at it. Writing needn’t be a formal enterprise to have this effect.…
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Q: What are your tricks for time management? “The simple answer is to attempt to avoid, at all costs, situations that waste people’s time.” “Regarding my personal time management, I also try to live by the philosophy that focuses on: ‘What did I do that was productive and beneficial in the last 40 minutes?’ I…
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I stumbled upon an essay by an anthropologist who had a diverse background before settling in Michigan. But where is she actually from? When I travel and a stranger asks if I’m from Michigan, I immediately reply: ‘I live there, but I’m not from there.’ I feel compelled to tell everyone about my immigrant past:…
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Marina Keegan was a writer, activist, and student at Yale. Before graduation she shared a few words for her fellow students: We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just…
Read MoreFrom my inbox: “I have a sneaking suspicion this feeling of being unsettled won’t go away until I control my freedom.” A common theme in the emails I receive is one of readers feeling unsettled. People are frustrated with one or more parts of their current life, yet they sense that change is possible—somehow, somewhere—if…
Read MoreInterviewer: “When it comes to human nature and human behavior, would you describe yourself as a pessimist?” “Pessimism has no function. It’s an indulgence of people who have little stamina to confront the challenges of modern life. And it’s a good way to rationalize their withdrawal from the great work of human beings, which is,…
Read MoreEmpires can crumble from lack of attention. Relationships can ebb when one person stops putting in the time and care. If you're not constantly worried about losing it all, you might lose it all.
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From Neil Degrasse Tyson: “In practically every idea we have as humans, the older version of it is not better than the newer version. With the invested effort of generations, and centuries, and sometimes millennia of smart people who have been born since the idea came out, we have improved ideas.” Is new always better?…
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