Wilder Penfield: “Rest, with nothing else, results in rust”
"Rest, with nothing else, results in rust," Wilder Penfield wrote in his great essay The Second Career: "It corrodes the mechanisms of the brain." The essay was an argument against
Wilder Penfield on the uses of idleness
Wilder Penfield, from his 1962 address "The Use of Idleness," republished in The Second Career: The best rest for doing one thing is doing another until you fall
Is Einstein history’s greatest “don’t give up your day job” story?
From Walter Isaacson’s Einstein: His Life and Universe: So it was that Albert Einstein would end up spending the most creative seven years of his life— even after
“Do what you love” is terrible advice
Is there a more common piece of career advice today than “do what you love?” I’ve heard it for ages, and I certainly think that being in a
“The reality is: Things never clear up”
Joli Jensen, a University of Tulsa professor who leads writing workshops for academics, has some sound practical advice about scheduling time for writing: One of the most widespread myths
“I was determined to rebrand myself as a digital copywriter”
Ever since I finished my last book The Distraction Addiction, I’ve been thinking about the economics of creative work, and the whole question of how you can do
“You know what really needs attention? What working like crazy and taking no time off really gets us”
Washington Post contributor Brigid Schulte has a brief piece explaining why overwork is bad for you. Forget Russian figure skater Julia Lipnitskaia spinning in a blur with her
Copy edits!
Just got these in the mail…. via flickr Very exciting, in the way that only a vanishingly small number of grinding, attention-demanding tasks can be.
How writing a book is like racing in the Tour de France, and not like self-marketing
I sent off the revised draft of my book last Friday, and celebrated this weekend by watching the end of the Tour de France. the book is back, via
Second reflections on writing
A while ago I wrote a piece about writing for the trades. As someone who'd written for academic audiences, and for corporate and government clients, it was interesting