women and ambition
sari and
women and ambition
“Too much life enters this house,” Tillie Olsen, the writer, labor activist and mother of four girls, wrote in a letter to the poet Anne Sexton. “Up at 6, breakfast in shifts, lunch packing — then, if no one ill, or it isn’t a holiday, or any of the other ORs, the day for work until 4, sometimes longer or an evening — depending on housework load,... See more
Opinion | The ‘Impossible Life’ of Equal Devotion to Art and Mothering
I have heard tales of creative rushes during the postpartum period, of women who ride the energy of human creation to power other creative acts. It is a beautiful idea, and one I would of course hope to experience. Make a human AND have a personal creative renaissance!? Yes, please. But alas, this is very, very far from my current state of affairs,... See more
Rachel Katz • Magic 8 Ball Mind
on mothering, productivity, and caring for an infant
She may agree with the poet Mary Oliver that “creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration. . . . It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching,” or with Gertrude Stein, who warned, “It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
Julie Phillips • The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem
Most people in my life at that time thought it was too late for me, a stay-at-home mom, to become a writer. It can be hard to believe in yourself when you’re immersed in the low expectations of others. You can feel like you’re drowning, and the only hands reaching out are trying to push you under.
But we don’t need to be the victims of other... See more
But we don’t need to be the victims of other... See more
People who do great work are not necessarily happier than everyone else, but they're happier than they'd be if they didn't. In fact, if you're smart and ambitious, it's dangerous
not
to be productive. People who are smart and ambitious but don't achieve much tend to become bitter.
not
to be productive. People who are smart and ambitious but don't achieve much tend to become bitter.
Paul Graham • How to Do Great Work
At some point while I was trying to write a dissertation as a parent of a preschooler and an infant, I attended a workshop from which I remember exactly one thing: Touch Your Project Every Day. We all lead busy lives, one of the organizers explained, and it can be difficult to find long stretches of time to focus and work through such a large and... See more
Sara Fredman • "I Had to Come to Terms With the Fact That Kids Are Interesting"
“Curious about how does one ‘have it all’? 3 young boys, 2 booming businesses, an incredible creative partnership and new business with your husband... what does hired help look like?” - Joanne
‘All’ isn’t possible, or even desirable. For me, a full, fulfilling life requires plenty of room for living and all the unplanned stuff that inevitably... See more
‘All’ isn’t possible, or even desirable. For me, a full, fulfilling life requires plenty of room for living and all the unplanned stuff that inevitably... See more
Emily Sundberg • The rules Clare de Boer lives by.
Clare de Boer on balancing work and kids
Whatever initial appeal this argument has, it owes to the unpleasantness of corporate drudgery in general, not to the predicament of female corporate drudges in particular. Invariably, the job that features in articles like Andrews’s is soul-sucking, pointless and therefore presumed to have been chosen solely for the prestige it confers (although... See more