Caterina Yannicelli

The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology. Edward O. Wilson, debate at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, Mass., 9 September 2009

Often we fail to improve our lives simply because things don't get bad enough. If your new job is hell, you’ll leave it, but if it’s just unsatisfying, you’ll likely grind it out. Thus, small problems often threaten our quality of life more than big ones.

Society which scorns excellence in plumbing because it’s a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy.

Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

~ John W. Gardner,

Practical things you can do to make your text clearer.

Open two copies of the same document and put them side-by-side. Edit in one, while referring to the other.

Rewrite your first draft using this rule: no significant words from the first draft are allowed in the second draft.

If your sentence has more than two commas in it, it’s probably too long.

I... See more

In Lauren Oyler’s essay about anxiety last week, she referenced a late 19th century diagnosis known as Americanitis , which described “the high-strung, nervous, active temperament of the American people.” Whether incited by advances in technology (causing loss of sleep, excessive worry) or capitalism (causing long work days, fast pace of life), the... See more