MargaretC

The river has great wisdom and whispers its secrets to the hearts of men,” Mark Twain said. It’s not just Macfarlane who bears this out but the three people he spends most time with on his travels: the eerily intuitive mycologist Giuliana in Ecuador, the geomancer Wayne in Canada and the ecologist Yuvan in India with his “ductile, fast-flowing... See more

Not giving a fuck if you look cringe is a superpower for the great online game. Like Peter Parker getting bit by a spider, I had my superhero moment with the druggie days. And I’m glad it happened. But you don’t need to go down that path to realize this: internet embarrassment isn’t that bad. Stop living in fear of being called cringe. The fear is... See more

Everyone belongs to a tribe and underestimates how influential that tribe is on their thinking. There is little correlation between climate change denial and scientific literacy. But there is a strong correlation between climate change denial and political affiliation. That’s an extreme example, but everyone has views persuaded by identity over... See more

In an environment like that, you have to make a mental and emotional adjustment to it. For me, that wasn’t a problem. After so many treks, I had learned to forget about my job, the bills, the car that needed servicing, how poorly the Yankees were playing, and the phone call I forgot to make. Instead, I focused on the present, on things I could

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People often ask me how I got the courage to put my work into the world.

I’m not sure I have any courage, but I do have rage .

This may come as a surprise to readers of my books, who tell me they’re rather helpful and upbeat. (Not words my friends and family might necessarily use to describe me!)

My secret is: the books are positive because I take a... See more

the accumulation of learning, an inevitable byproduct of the process of growing up, takes us not closer to but further away from our creative source

GPT-4 and 4-Turbo have always been available for free in Microsoft Copilot. 4o is now free in ChatGPT. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is now free in Claude. So there are many that have never subscribed to a premium plan that have been using the best models all along still