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... And what exactly is a 'Debt-Like' item anyway

A little plea to stop judging art by what the dullest take away

This, by one Jash Dholani, has been provoking much derision on Twitter over the past few days. The easiest and most obvious response is t...

It's not an anti-NATO, it's not going to replace the dollar, and it's not going to control global economic growth.

Novel news; a review for the NYT.

My friends at Six Apart recently asked me to make a list of blogs that I enjoy. I think they're planning to use it for their new Blogs.com project. Unfortunately, I'm late getting it to them (typical), but if it's still useful, I'll post it here in a day

It’s a weird thing to say, but I guess I’m a professional reader. That’s really what authors are. A book is made of books. “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading; a man will turn over half a library to make one book,” Samuel Johnson said. I’ve written 15 books now, which has meant reading many thousands of books in the process. Once a month for the last 15 years, I’ve recommended many of those books in the Reading List Email. And in 2021, I opened my own bookstore filled with my all-time favorites. So the question I am asked most often is: How do you read so much? What’s the secret? The answer is not “I’m a speedreader.” As I’ve written before, speed reading is a scam. The answer is that I have a system, a process that helps me be a productive reader. It’s not my system exactly, as I’ve taken many strategies from history’s greatest readers. Nor is this a system designed around speed or quantity. Reading is wonderful in and of itself, why would I try to rush through it? No, I try to do it well. I try to enjoy it. In this email, I thought I would detail some of the rules I’ve come to follow over the years. They don’t all make me faster, but they do make me better. –Do it all the time. Bring a book with you everywhere. I’ve read at the Grammy’s and in the moments before going under for a surgery. I’ve read on planes and beaches, in cars and in cars while I waited for a tow truck. You take the pockets of time you can get. –Physical books only. -It’s not that I have a problem with audiobooks–if it gets you reading, I’m all for it. I just think there’s something very special about the physical form. I just read a great book about this actually called Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. –Hardcover over paperback. –Bring a pen with you too. Reading is better if you’re taking notes. –Keep a commonplace book. As Seneca wrote: “We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application—not far far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech—and learn them so well that words become works.” (Here’s a video on my commonplace book method). –Err on the side of age. Classics are classics for a reason. -Beat them up. Books are not precious things. As an author, I love it when people hand me a book to sign that has had real miles put on it. When people hand me a pristine copy and tell me it’s their favorite, I assume they are just flattering me. It’s obvious what my favorite books are…because they’re falling apart (here’s my copy of Meditations for instance). –In every book you read, try to find your next one in its footnotes or bibliography. This is how you build a knowledge base in a subject—it’s how you trace a subject back to its core. -Same goes when you find an author you love, read them ALL. I read Cecil Woodham-Smith’s book on the charge of the Light Brigade…only to find she had also written a biography of Florence Nightingale. It was that discovery that shaped a full third of my book Courage is Calling. -That comment from (the disgraced and indicted FTX founder) Sam Bankman Fried about how every book could be a 900 word blog post is preposterously stupid. The whole point of reading is to really understand something. So if all you’re after is the ‘gist,’ skip books and stick with blog posts. –If you see a book you want, just buy it. Don’t worry about the price. Reading is not a luxury. It’s not something you splurge on. It’s a necessity. Even if all you get is one life-changing idea from a book, that’s still a pretty good ROI. -That might sound privileged, but Warren Buffett considers the foundation of his multi-billion dollar empire to be a book. At 19-years-old, he bought a copy of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. We don’t know exactly what he paid for it, but in the early 1950s, a hardcover typically went for $1.30–the best investment he ever made, he’s said. Today, Buffett’s worth $108.7 billion, having given away some $37 billion to charitable causes. Not a bad ROI! –Some people might recoil at categorizing a book that way, but as a lover of literature, I have no problem with it. I myself wouldn’t be writing this to you today if I hadn’t bought a paperback of Meditations in 2006 for $8.25 on Amazon. That book of philosophy taught me not just about life, but also schooled me in the art of writing, in working with and managing people, and gave me the speciality which I now write my own books about. Again, not a bad ROI. –Don’t just read books, re-read books. There’s a great line the Stoics loved—that we never step in the same river twice. The books don’t change, but you do. –As I said, speed reading is a scam. You just have to spend a lot of time reading. –If a book sucks, stop reading it. The best readers actually quit a lot of books. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading. –The rule I like is ‘one hundred pages minus your age.’ Say you’re 30 years old—if a book hasn’t captivated you by page 70, stop reading it. So as you age, you have less time to endure crap. -Embrace serendipity. So many of my favorite books are just random things I grabbed at bookstores (this is why I say don’t sweat buying a book–just roll the dice). That’s what bookstores are for, what I’ve tried to build mine around. It’s a discovery engine better than any algorithm. -Don’t just build a library, build [...]

The creator of Brain Pickings on what she’s learned about living a good life by tracing trails through “humanity’s common record.”

I’ve been reading and rereading biographies of Bach lately (for some podcast prep), and it strikes me he might count as the greatest achiever of all time.  That is distinct from say regarding him as your favorite composer or artist of all time.  I would include the following metrics as relevant for that designation: 1. […]

They're designed for storage, not sparking insights. Can AI change that?

Hint: I start with hyperbole.

One estimate finds that about 117 billion anatomically modern humans have ever been born; I don’t know how accurate the “117 billion” number really is, but it seems reasonable eno…

On working for money, burnout, and the importance of doing what you love.

Tom Peters's classic report on how regardless of age, job title, or industry, all of us need to develop a strong personal brand.

I was honored to give a Last Lecture for the Stanford Graduate School of Business Class of 2023. Read on for a summary of the message I shared, or watch the entire lecture video.

How a Montreal copywriter swindled victims out of $200 million by pretending to be a legendary psychic

Hint: I start with hyperbole.

The case for sabbaticals

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All those daily activities we'd rather avoid — taking the stairs, cleaning the house etc. — have a big metabolic payoff. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis can help manage weight and boost health.

Tidbits I've learned that have made my life better

The 92-year-old nonfiction master has published 32 books, over 100 magazine features, and some 3 million words. With a new collection out this summer, he shares the simple secrets to his staggering productivity.

A man passes away without a word in the mountains of North Carolina, and his grandson sets out to write about the importance of a seemingly unimportant life.

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text] The Inner Ring By C. S. Lewis*[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]May I read you a few lines from Tolstoy’s War and Peace? When Boris entered the room, Prince Andrey was listening to an old general, wearing...

Network topology and the ghost of the digg homepage

There's a great Twitter thread from Tom Critchlow that responds to the narrative of the "status game" being played online. In particular,...

Dear Leon and Charlie, In the story of the creation, God makes the world, and everything in it, in six days. On the seventh day he rests...

Why college is a Girardian nightmare; *Big Little Lies* on HBO; Proust; memes; why America's greatest feature is both tolerance and rejection of mimesis.

Actor, writer, and comedian Nick Offerman on the value of making things yourself, and why you should stop buying useless crap.