Natalie Audelo

For generalists, mastery doesn't mean knowing everything about one thing; it means understanding how to apply knowledge from one area to another in innovative ways.

At 97, Monti is animated and unstoppable. She runs Santa Maddalena as her personal passion project, accepting no applications and choosing writers according to her instincts, in consultation with her network of friends, publishers and other authors. Her taste, developed over a lifetime of nurturing and being nurtured by literature and art, is... See more

"Once you've started, you're halfway there."

The ease of technology has given us unrealistic expectations for our real lives. And in real life, someone or something will always come knocking on your door. You can let it drive you absolutely mad, or you can fling the door open and tell them how happy you are to see them.

By all means, do your work and decorate your room. You’ve been afforded... See more

What do you consider your greatest achievement so far?

Building a family. Building is a political philosophy – a very noble act. We talk a lot about the virtue of building in Silicon Valley, and for most people, family formation is the deepest and most tangible way in which they’ll experience building something from nothing that outlasts... See more

Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works.

Making ceramics requires patience and is an exercise in delayed gratification (or dissatisfaction). There are so many ways to fuck something up, so many stages to the process, and entering that cycle of hope, expectation, and either failure and trying again or ecstatic satisfaction added a new dimension to the rhythms of my life.