Writing
"Running one mile has more in common with running a marathon than sitting at home.
Investing $100 has more in common with being a millionaire than being broke.
Writing one sentence has more in common with writing a book than never writing one.
It always feels small in the beginning and the big goals seem far away. It's easy to talk yourself out of the
... See morePrestige is just fossilized inspiration. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Jazz comes to mind — though almost any established art form would do. So just do what you like, and let prestige take care of itself.
paulgraham.com • How to Do What You Love
Vincent Van Gogh on the accumulation of small things:
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. The trick is to focus on the first small thing. Starting small is still starting, and small beginnings often lead to extraordinary endings.”
What I really think good writing does: It enlivens that part of us that actually believes we are in this world, right now, and that being here somehow matters.
-George Saunders
Our story arcs are a legacy from the Greeks, who gave us tragedy, a genre built on rises and falls that peak with a climax. Aristotle called the moment of maximum intensity peripeteia — which translates to reversal — and named the aftermath catharsis, the release of emotional energy. That’s how we all know pride comes before fall and that the
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