Robin Harford

Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.

Minor White

First Principles

First principles thinking is a problem-solving approach that breaks complex situations down into their most basic, fundamental truths and reconstructs a solution from scratch. It challenges assumptions and ignores analogies (conventional wisdom) to find new solutions. Popularised by Elon Musk, this method acts as a "physics-based"

First-order thinking is a fast, instinctive decision-making approach focused on immediate, short-term results and reactions, often ignoring long-term consequences. It relies on emotions, biases, and easy solutions (e.g., "I'm hungry, I'll eat"). While useful for low-stakes decisions, it often leads to oversimplification of complex problems.

The Eremocene, or "Age of Loneliness," is a term coined by biologist E.O. Wilson to describe the current and future era of planetary history characterised by mass species extinction due to human activity. Derived from the Greek eremos (lonely), it signifies the ecological emptiness resulting from destroying biodiversity, leaving humanity isolated

Stop trying to write like a “serious” author. The world has enough stiff, self-important writing. Loosen up. Make a joke. Break a rule. Start a sentence with “and.” Great writing isn’t about sounding like literature—it’s about sounding like life. And life is messy, chaotic, and alive. Let your pages breathe.

Lucas James

Writers are obsessive, driven people.

Stephan Harrod Buhner, from Ensouling Language.

When writing rules interfere with capturing the living, always-changing, ever-moving luminous thread that is being followed, when they interfere with the conveyance of meaning, with what must be said, then the rules of grammar must be abandoned. Humans created them, any human can break them. With impunity. Ultimately, there are no inviolable rules

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.

Susan Sontag

ALEXANDERS.--This plant is the Smyrnium olustratum of science, and is

used in this country in the same way in which celery is. It is a native

of Great Britain, and is found in its wild state near the seacoast. It

received its name from the Italian "herba Alexandrina," and is supposed

to have been originally brought from Alexandria; but, be this as it