Hillary Rettig's Blog, page 4

RIP Billy Dawg 2003? – 2019

We lost our cherished Billy Dawg last week. He died at home, surrounded by love. Here is a picture his dogsitter sent us. She captioned it: “Here he is motivating me to complete my senior project!” (Like mom, like pup!) Billy was (we think) at least sixteen years old with some of the usual senior […]

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The "Tiger Mom" Revisited

I've written before about Amy "Tiger Mom" Chua and her odious 2011 book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the thesis of which is that you should punish, humiliate, and otherwise coerce your kids into being high achievers. As I wrote at the time it was published: A few weeks ago [Chua] had a […]

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The “Tiger Mom” Revisited

I’ve written before about Amy “Tiger Mom” Chua and her odious 2011 book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the thesis of which is that you should punish, humiliate, and otherwise coerce your kids into being high achievers. As I wrote at the time it was published: A few weeks ago [Chua] had a […]

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Slow Down to Speed Up! Also, Bonus Moving Story.

Sorry for the hiatus – we wound up moving on somewhat short notice. Now we’re (mostly) settled in a bee-you-ti-ful new apartment (still in Kalamazoo), so it’s time for another newsletter. After the move, I was surrounded by mountains of boxes, mountain ranges of boxes. It would have been easy to get overwhelmed, but I […]

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Perfectionism is All Lies and Oversimplifications, Part One Million

This tweet has it all, from a perfectionist standpoint: It: Sets an impossibly high standard for success. (You should be as successful as Apple’s Steve Jobs, etc.) Is shaming. (“What’s your excuse?”) Makes specious comparisons. (Between you and these ultra-successful outliers, most of whom also achieved their success decades ago, in a very different society […]

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Roll Over Beethoven!

At a recent performance of Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony, the conductor told how, when Brahms was just starting out, the elder composer Robert Schumann praised him to the high heavens. Here’s the story: Brahms was only twenty years old and as yet little known….Robert expressed his admiration first in a letter to Joachim, and then […]

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Nope, “Perfectionism in Moderation” Isn’t a Good Thing

Writer Lindsay Ellis recently tweeted about imposter syndrome (where you think you aren’t up to the task, have everyone fooled, and are destined to be revealed as a horrible fraud). Unfortunately, she gets it wrong. She writes: “Because the thought patterns that lead to imposter syndrome need not always be a net negative – on […]

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Nonperfectionism in a Single Sentence

Nothing is as humbling, to a writer, anyway, as when you’ve used a lot of words to say something, and then someone comes along and nails it in a single sentence. But also nothing is more of a gift, so I guess it evens out.

The Difference Between High Standards and Perfectionism

Where does “high standards” end and perfectionism begin? When it starts to cost you. A recent New York Times piece by Karen Crouse recounts the trials of figure skater Gracie Gold, an Olympic contender who suffered mental illness, including eating disorders, in large part from the pressures of competing.  Gold’s perfectionism, according to the article, […]

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Now Do an Email Sprint With Me

Here’s another good technique: email sprints. Take a clicker* and use it to keep track while sending out ten QUICK emails in rapid succession. I love doing email sprints. You can fit them easily in between other tasks and they clear out your inbox like nothing else. Sprinting also gives you a wonderful little productivity […]

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