Writing

It was my better half’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Abby! ’Twas a good month for reading :) June The Song of the Bird, Anthony de Mello (absolutely read. buy and give people copies. this book for me, goes beyond a quake book. it has shaped my life, and thoughts, since boyhood, subconsciously then and with intent now.) The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot #1), Agatha Christie (re-reading my way through the Poirot canon. these books take me to the age I think I belong to, the late 1800s, early 1900s absolutely delightful) ...

Just a couple of links to pique your interest. James Clear, one of the few “self-help” authors, I actually read and follow, has this to say on time management: What is urgent in your life and what is important to your life are often very different things. Eliminate half-work at all costs. Do the most important thing first. Reduce the scope, but stick to the schedule. Read the whole, really well written article to learn more. ...

Sometimes Seth Godin makes it easy for me to do the newsletter. There’s a pithy post that says everything I want to say. So, to the kids I coach, this is the best writing advice I could give you! (Everything below the break is Seth, (emphases mine)) Decorating a car with bling, mudflaps and an airhorn is a form of signalling. You can show your peers that you have the resources to waste on superfluous adornments. ...

From the Writing Routines1 pdf that is available on signing up to their mailing list… “If I had a nickel for every person who ever told me he/she wanted to become a writer but “didn’t have time to read,” I could buy myself a pretty good steak dinner. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King, On Writing ...

Go see how large your vocabulary is! And don’t cheat! At least the first time :) Click here to take the test. This is me1. Subscribe to the newsletter already, will ya? Ok, I cheated. The original one was 40,000 so i took it again :P ↩︎

Shane Parrish’s highlights from this gem of a Ted Talk by Kahthryn Schulz. … The first thing we usually do when someone disagrees with us is that we just assume they are ignorant. You know, they don’t have access to the same information we do and when we generously share that information with them, they are going to see the light and come on over to our team. When that doesn’t work. When it turns out those people have all the same information and they still don’t agree with us we move onto a second assumption. They’re idiots. They have all the right pieces of the puzzle and they are too moronic to put them together. ...