Is there anything in particular you do to transport yourself into that zone?

I recently learned Einstein used to do something specific. To get his brain in the zone, he would bring together two very different things to see what the connection was between them. Are.na at its best is really good for that. So if I haven’t used Are.na in a more... See more

This line from the Ta-Nehisi Coates book, Between the World and Me: “I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.”

It’s a very cheesy phrase, but we sometimes ask, “How can we make being smart cool?”. That is, how can we make casual research—seeking out new knowledge just for the sake of it—a part of an everyday process for a normal internet user?