Ruth Chang: How to Make Hard Choices
Ruth Chang is a philosopher at Rutgers University with an interesting background. After graduating with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and dipping her toe into the legal world, she went off to Oxford …
Thought and Opinion
9 Habits You Need to Stop Now
Rather than read all of these self-help books full of things you should start doing to be more productive, it’s often better to look at what you should stop doing that gets in the way of …
Dan Gilbert: Why do we make decisions our future selves regret?
“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.” In the 7-minute TED talk (below), Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert illuminates some recent research on a …
The Art of Winning An Argument
We spend a lot of our lives trying to convince or persuade others to our point of view. This is one of the reasons that Daniel Pink says that we’re all in sales: Some of you, no doubt, are …
Stephen Cave: The Four Stories we tell Ourselves About Death
In a great interview with NPR, Philosopher Stephen Cave delves into the simple question: Why are human beings afraid to die? In answering Cave, the author of Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and …
Douglas Adams on our Reactions to Technology Over Time
“I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies,” writes Douglas Adams in The Salmon of Doubt. 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is …
Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life
In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote this letter to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice. Thompson’s letter, found in Letters of Note, …
Eudora Welty to The New Yorker: The best job application ever
In March of 1933, Eudora Welty, then 23 and looking for writing work, sent this beautiful letter to the offices of The New Yorker. “It’s difficult,” writes Shaun Usher in his …
Sol LeWitt on the Power of Doing
In 1960 two American artists met for the first time: Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse. The meeting sparked a bond that resulted in “countless inspirational discussions and rich exchanged of ideas” …
Work in Pulses
We’re not designed for multitasking and we’re certainly not designed to work continuously without a break. We’re designed to pulse, that is alternate between expending energy and …
Einstein: The World As I See It
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer …
Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Acceptance Speech on Working Alone
“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.” — Ernest Hemingway *** Solitude is an important aspect toward accomplishing great things, creative or otherwise. In fact, it’s one of the commonalities …
Teddy Roosevelt’s 10 Rules For Reading
“A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular time.” *** Theodore Roosevelt was perhaps the most well-read president. On a normal day, he’d read a book before breakfast …
Much of What You’re Going to Do or Say Today is Not Essential
If you’re a modern knowledge worker, your typical day might look something like this: you go to work, read and reply to emails, attend meetings, grab a coffee, have lunch, attend more meetings, …
20 Aphorisms from Nassim Taleb
The Bed of Procrustes, the title of Nassim Taleb‘s book of aphorisms, takes its title from Greek Mythology. Procrustes (“the stretcher”) owned a small estate along the sacred way …
Charlie Munger: Energy Independence is a Terribly Stupid Idea
Everyone wants energy independence. Everyone—from politicians and business people to academics—says that our reliance on foreign energy is bad. But have we really thought about this? Does it make …