March 2012
47 posts
7 tags
“One of the more peculiar, more semiconscious exercises I practiced, early in my...”
– William Gibson. Imaginative reading, recalling, repeating… Ben Franklin did the same thing to improve his writing as a teenager.
February 2012
61 posts
5 tags
Bruce Schneier on Trust | FiveBooks | The Browser →
Self-deception makes us better at deception. For example, there is value in my being able to deceive you into thinking I am stronger than I really am. You’re less likely to pick a fight with me, I’m more likely to win a dominance struggle without fighting, and so on. I am better able to bluff you if I actually believe I am stronger than I really am. So we deceive ourselves in order to be better...
6 tags
“Art is cognitive play. Humans and other intelligent species engage in prolonged...”
– William Deresiewicz in Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism | The Nation, summarizing some arguments in Brian Boyd’s On the Origin of Stories. (via wehr)
4 tags
6 tags
G&G Me With a Buccellati Silver Spoon! The OA... →
An extended, worthwhile critique/rant on Garden & Gun. OA Editor Marc Smirnoff talks a bit about willful editorial blind spots, like G&G’s intentional avoidance of politics, religion, and football. And race:
The South’s progress since 1966 is what needs to be celebrated, not the fact that a native magazine ignored the historic issues and deep struggles of the era. The growth in...
6 tags
5 tags
We're All the 1 Percent - Charles Kenny | Foreign... →
To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,00.
Perspective!
5 tags
“We [are] shaped as writers, I believe, not much by who our favorite writers are...”
– William Gibson via Brain Pickings. I just picked up this book. Really looking forward to reading more.
5 tags
The Decline and Fall of Parental Authority |... →
By the time kids are 18, at least half of them have already received a psychological diagnosis.
If that’s true… wow. (via)
5 tags
On Teaching « Modeled Behavior →
No matter what you are saying your effectiveness will be primarily determined by how much you love saying it.
4 tags
7 tags
“The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you...”
– Austin Kleon.
6 tags
“As an artist you can sit and tinker with stuff forever. You can add and take...”
– Andre 3000.
6 tags
Are You As Busy As You Think? - WSJ.com →
Claiming to be busy relieves us of the burden of choice. But if you’re working 50 hours a week, and sleeping eight hours a night (56 per week) that leaves 62 hours for other things. That’s plenty of hours for a family life and a personal life — exercising, volunteering, sitting on the porch with the paper, plus watching TV if you like.
7 tags
7 tags
5 tags
3 tags
Watchaustinkleon:
I sort of hate book trailers, so I made a cute dog video disguised as one instead.
My relationship with Amazon was deeply harmed when they told me my pre-ordered copy isn’t coming until March 1st restored when I got an update that it should arrive tomorrow! Hurry it up Good job, guys!
6 tags
Upping the Antihero – The New Inquiry →
The old cop who chafed at institutional limits has undergone a neoliberal transformation: The result is a new kind of series that we might call the consultant procedural. A derivative of the cop and private investigator procedurals, the consultant procedural starts with some sort of institutional disqualification and follows the central character as he or she ports unmatched professional skills...
6 tags
Gilbert Arenas, Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles... →
Kobe’s relentlessness has always been his most celebrated quality, but this season, he’s starting to remind me of one of those space probes that somehow keep feeding back data even after they’ve gone out twice as far as the zone where they were supposed to break down. You know these stories — no one at NASA can believe it, every day they come into work expecting the line to be dead, but somehow,...
5 tags
“Rarely do I have any shittiness that stays shitty. I either resolve it or walk...”
– Eddie Murphy.
6 tags
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview →
I missed this interview last fall. Murphy on the selectiveness that wealth affords:
I only want to do what I really want to do, otherwise I’m content to sit here and play my guitar all day. I always tell people now that I’m a semiretired gentleman of leisure, and occasionally I’ll go do some work to break the boredom up.
On parenting:
That stuff, with people...
8 tags
4 tags
Predictive analytics and information camouflage –... →
Ads lift us above the other people who are duped by them. That is part of how they persuade us. […] We are hailed by ads only under the pretense that we are observing someone else being hailed (someone who turns out to become us).
6 tags
Envisioning a Post-Campus America - Megan McArdle... →
Tenured academics has worked a great scam. They’ve managed to monetize peoples’ affection for regional football teams, and their desire for a work credential, and then somehow diverted that money into paying academics to work on whatever they want, for the rest of their lives, without any oversight by the football fans or the employers.
In addition to enjoying this nice little zinger,...
7 tags
4 tags
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you...”
– Diane Arbus.
4 tags
7 tags
The New World of William Carlos Williams by Adam... →
In his Autobiography, Williams makes clear that part of what inspired him to become a writer was anger: “To write, like Shakespeare! and besides I wanted to tell people, to tell ‘em off, plenty. There would be a bitter pleasure in that, bitter because I instinctively knew no one much would listen.”
5 tags
5 tags
“So successful has been the camera’s role in beautifying the world that...”
– Susan Sontag. Via a commenter on today’s Cat and Girl.
4 tags
7 tags
4 tags
Content Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink –... →
I’ve learned that talking to the press is like talking to the police — ideally, don’t, since your interests conflict and there’s little to no potential upside for you — but I regularly forget or ignore this wisdom.
3 tags
Made Better in Japan - WSJ.com →
The heavy black menus offer no dishes, only a short manifesto from the chef explaining that he will choose what we eat.
5 tags
5 tags
“Basing your friendships on what people have to offer, vs. what you want from...”
– Carolyn Hax.
5 tags
5 tags
“The most adult decisions in your life are ones that put severe limits on other...”
– Penelope Trunk. Filed under: decisions.
6 tags
9 tags
What Facebook's IPO means for women | Penelope... →
It’s no coincidence that the number-one woman on the list of self-made millionaires is Oprah. She has no kids and no husband. She’s fascinating, nice, and smart. But few of us would really enjoy her life.
8 tags
Flight of the Concord: The perils of the recording... →
In the moment of playing, the logistics of just hitting the notes distract you somewhat from the continuous choices you are making. In the edit you have nothing but choice. And yet you feel helpless, since everything has already been played.
4 tags
6 tags
“I’m not very interested in political satire because it works on the assumption...”
– George Saunders. Re-tumbling this part of a really good interview because it’s an election year. Just doing my part for America.
6 tags
“The point isn’t to achieve everything, just to pay respects to one or two...”
– Alain de Botton. Filed under: success.
3 tags
9 tags
Charles Murray on the New American Divide -... →
Places to live in which the people around you have no problems that need cooperative solutions tend to be sterile. America outside the enclaves of the new upper class is still a wonderful place, filled with smart, interesting, entertaining people. If you’re not part of that America, you’ve stripped yourself of much of what makes being American special.
5 tags
7 tags
Steven Spielberg's complete movies: I've seen... →
One of the weaknesses people have noticed about his work—but have not, I think, yet commented enough upon—is that he can’t do comedy.
4 tags
