Minsuk Kang 강민석

if you admire two kinds of work equally, but one is more prestigious, you should probably choose the other. Your opinions about what's admirable are always going to be slightly influenced by prestige, so if the two seem equal to you, you probably have more genuine admiration for the less prestigious one.

Prestige is especially dangerous to the ambitious. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, the way to do it is to bait the hook with prestige. That's the recipe for getting people to give talks, write forewords, serve on committees, be department heads, and so on. It might be a good rule simply to avoid any prestigious... See more

I read that Willa Cather read a chapter of the Bible every day. I was really inspired, because I think her prose is so sturdy. I was, like, O.K., I’m going to read the Bible. I would read a chapter, and then I’d do my work. Gradually, I started to read the chapter and I realized that there were things I didn’t understand, and some of it was... See more