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Reading and writing require time yes, but if we’re only able to think of the time in a day as already belonging to someone else, we’re essentially screwed.

everything starts to matter because a context has arisen; expectations arise.

What is aura, actually? A strange web of space and time: the unique appearance of a distance, no matter how close it may be. While at rest on a summer’s noon, to trace a range of mountains on the horizon, or a branch that throws its shadow on the observer, until the moment or the hour becomes part of their appearance — this is what it means to

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Choosing the least risky strategy, on a per-play basis, is often the worst strategy if you want to win the game. If you’re looking to score the most runs (or the most points or goals if we’re talking about a different sport), you can’t go around running scared. The right play is the return-maximizing play almost every time, even if it feels “too... See more

Ariana Reines’s Wave of Blood has a beautiful insight about how poetry outlasts almost everything else human beings do or make.

Return scales linearly with the number of trials. Variance scales as the square root of the number of trials. The standard deviation of four trials is only double that of a single trial, but the return is four times as much. Things that feel more failure-prone simply aren’t over a large sample, at least as long as the return is there.

I think a scrupulous avoidance of cliche and unnecessary words and a consistent desire to surprise are a good starting point for anyone, eventually taste, disposition, and commitment to character and situation take care of the rest.

One beautiful thing about literature is that it’s a blossoming tree, and each new branch you crack can lead to all sorts of nooks and crannies.