Melissa Wiley
@melissawiley
Author of The Nerviest Girl in the World & other books for kids
Cohost of the Brave Writer Podcast with Julie Bogart
Melissa Wiley
they would like to do for its own sake and not because their fathers did it. Most of us who turn to any subject with love remember some morning or evening hour when we got on a high stool to reach down an untried volume, or sat with parted lips listening to a new talker, or for very lack of books began to listen to the voices within as the first
... See moreGeorge Eliot • Middlemarch
“Given the exact circumstances in which I find myself, am I able to write for fifteen minutes?” If your answer is no, explain to yourself why you are answering no. If your answer is yes but you don’t start writing, explain to yourself why, even though you feel able to write, you aren’t writing. If your answer is yes and you do write, have a chat
... See moreEric Maisel • A Writer's Space
The idea of research as leisure activity has stayed with me because it seems to describe a kind of intellectual inquiry that comes from idiosyncratic passion and interest. It’s not about the formal credentials. It’s fundamentally about play . It seems to describe a life where it’s just fun to be reading, learning, writing, and collaborating on... See more
Celine Nguyen • research as leisure activity
In a broader sense, this is a book about exploration and discovery. I have long had two favorite proverbs: one is Shaw's "Be sure to get what you like, or else you will have to like what you get," the other a translation from an old Spanish proverb, ""Take what you want,' says God, 'and pay for it.'" To find out what one really wants, and what it
... See moreBegin to look forward to your coming brainstorm. Begin to smile at the thought of it. Began to organize a bit in anticipation of clearing the decks. Begin to wean yourself from this or that distracting activity. Get ready. Soon you will begin a fine month of productive obsessing. I hope you are eager!
Eric Maisel • Brainstorm
It is vital that a person who has decided to turn the seeds of interest into full-fledged productive obsessions learn to distinguish between those things that merely interest him and those things that really interest him. If he can’t make some sensible distinctions, he may try to build brainstorms in places of insufficient interest. If, say, his
... See moreEric Maisel • Brainstorm
If you can get from San Francisco to Paris in twelve hours, what can’t you do in a month? You could get in a lot of productive obsessing — or learn about your idiosyncratic ways of preventing yourself from using your brainpower. In a month you could produce a brainstorm or learn why you refuse to cultivate one.
Eric Maisel • Brainstorm
When, by contrast, you announce that you intend to productively obsess about the challenge at hand, your brain is alerted to the fact that you intend to operate differently. Your neurons stand at attention, and thinking commences.
Eric Maisel • Brainstorm
I don’t talk about it much but I do work at Google and I just want to contribute, as a small addendum to the wider conversation about AI, and how much it sucks, and how stupid it is, and how if you make garlic oil like it tells you to you will give botulism to your entire family -
we don’t use it.
like internally. we don’t use it.
I mean that we... See more
we don’t use it.
like internally. we don’t use it.
I mean that we... See more