Just discovered on A Talk a Day. I think I'm going to be up a while until I hear all of what Daniel Kahneman has to say. And just in case you haven't read Thinking Fast and Slow, time you did. Now, how did I miss this site for as long as this?
How will you measure your life?
This lecture by Clayton Christensen is perhaps one of the most I have ever heard in my life. Each time I listen to it, it reinforces my belief our race to "achieve" is a race to the bottom
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton on Airports
"I hadn't noticed just how many kissing couples are there at airports. Once you focus in on this, you realize the whole airport in a giant temple to love."
Full interview on Memoirs of an airport writer in residence
Viktor Frankl: Image from Wikipedia
Viktor Frankl on Man's search for meaning
If you haven't read Man's Search for Meaning, there's only one piece of advice I have to offer: Please do.
Some gems from this life changing piece of work.
"...success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself."
“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”
“What is to give light must endure burning.”
“So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”
1000 tweets on writing from The Economist
The Economist Style Guide has just put out it's 1,000th (is there a word like that? I'll be damned if there isn't) tweet. To celebrate this, the editors who think these up have compiled the 25 they think the best. For instance:
1. Journalists often speak of someone’s meteoric rise, forgetting, it seems, that meteors are better known for falling to Earth.
2. "Strategic" is usually meaningless except to tell you that the writer is trying to invest something with a seriousness it does not deserve.
3. But if you do use swear words, spell them out in full, without asterisks or other coynesses: the f-word should be considered ineffable.
4. If something really is interesting, you probably do not need to say so.
5. Short words: Use them. They are easy to spell and easy to understand. Thus prefer about to approximately, after to following, but to however.
All of them can be read on Prospero, the magazine's blog about books, art and culture.
Many thanks to Raju Narisetti (@raju on Twitter) for pointing to this in his feed.
Varanasi Street Scene: Little boy watching barber at work at Varansi ghats with man meditating next to them
Varanasi Street Scene
I haven't seen a more stunning picture of Varanasi than this in a long time. Just discovered on Twitter and originates from www.picfair.com. The site is in beta and at first look, I like the sound of all that it stands for.