Merce Cardus's Blog, page 120

Flow: The Secret To Happiness

Video of the day:

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, professor of psychologist and author ofFlow, talks about the state of total immersion in a task that is challenging yet closely matched to one’s abilities.

So my research has been focused more on –(…): where — in everyday life, in our normal experience – do we feel really happy? And to start those studies about 40 years ago, I began to look at creative people – first artists and scientists, and so forth — trying to understand what made them feel that i...

HUMP DAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: Keep Things In Perspective

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Quote of the day

Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t be able to dothisanymore?

~MARCUS AURELIUS

CREATIVITY

To be creative is to stay hungry, Creative Something

SCIENCE

Why the scientist who unravelled DNA is selling his Nobel Prize, The Atlantic

BOOKS

Writers pick the best books of 2014, The Guardian

PSYCHOLOGY

Is Internet addiction a real thing?, The New Yorker

ENTERTAINMENT

The secret Hollywood pr...

The Glamour Of Grammar

If the English language lives inside you, and if you live inside your language,The Glamour of Grammarinvites you to embrace grammar with glamour.

Avoid speed bumps caused by misspellings

But if spelling has the power to express, misspellings have the power to distract and confound.

British spellers prefer programme, centre, cheque, and humour to the conventional American spellings.

And how do you spell butterfly?

Well, if you are Spanish, you spell it mariposa; if you are French, you watch a papil...

TUESDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing and Better Living: Figuring Out How To Say Something Someone

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Quote of the day

The voice you hear in your head, the language you speak to yourself–that’s not just your voice or your language. Writing is less about finding your own voice than about figuring out how to say something someone.

~NOAH BERLATSKY, author ofWonder Woman

CAREERS

The magic of dreaming big, 99u

TECHNOLOGY

Now, anyone can buy a drone. Heaven helps us,NYT

SOCIAL MEDIA

Thoughts on Google +, Medium

GENDER

Why couples mo...

Concerning The Spiritual in Art

Concerning the Spiritual in ArtbyWassilyKandinsky (1866-1944), an influential Russian painter and art theorist, contains two parts and twelve illustrations.

This short book tries to answer the question What is he trying to do?, question some of us formulate when we stand in front of an abstract painting. They say, ‘Kandinsky paints music’; he actually breaks down the barrier between music and painting. Let’s listen to part of it. (It can be also absorved for writers and other makers of art.)

PA...

MONDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: Automation Make Us Dumb

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Quote of the day

If we let our own skills fade by relying too much on automation, we are going to render ourselves less capable, less resilient and more subservient to our machines. We will create a world more fit for robots than for us.

~NICHOLAS CARR, author of The ShallowsandThe Glass Cage

ECONOMY

The battle between Netflix and HBO is just beginning, The Washington Post

TECHNOLOGY

iPhone 6, 6 Plus owners using iPads less, Gigaom

Automation makes us dumb (The Gla...

How to learn about ourselves for better relating to others

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The ancient Greeks were the first to categorize individual personalities into broad types: Choleric (irritable and hot-tempered), Sanguine (passionate and courageous), phlegmatic (calm and unemotional), melancholic (prone to depression and despondency). While the Greek model was focused on nature, modern models focus more on nurture, like the 16 personality types of the Myers-Briggs test.

I think personality profiles are valuable tools for better lea...

WEEKEND LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: Kindness And Generosity Glue Couples Together

© James Pouliot -www.19rivoli.com

Quote of the day

Science says lasting relationships come down to—you guessed it—kindness and generosity.

~ EMILY ESFAHANI

RELATIONSHIPS

Masters of Love, The Atlantic

ACHIEVEMENT

How trashing others holds you back, 99u

PSYCHOLOGY

We make our big life decisions at 29, 39, and so on, Science of us

AMAZON

Review AmazonFire HDX 8.9, Wired

TECHNOLOGY

App predicts taste in wine and beer, Wine Times

CREATIVITY

Igniting the creative fire that lives within us all (Cirque du Soleil: T...

Igniting The Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All

InCirque du Soleil: The Spark,Lyn Heward, former President of Cirque du Soleil, tells the story of an ordinary man searching for meaning in his life and work.

Here are 5 tips to ignite the creative fire that lives within us all:

1. Creativity means courage:

Creativity is first and foremost all about courage—a willigness to take risks, to try new things, and to share the experience with others.

2. Envision your life and take a leap of faith:

I realized I was starting to fall back into the same rut...

THURSDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: Everyone Has His Mission In Life

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Quote of the day

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.

~Viktor Frankl, author ofMan’s Search for Meaning

HEALTH

If you keep texting, your head will fall off, The Atlantic

BOOKS

The Pages Project brings the beauty of physical books online, Mashable

CREATIVITY

Inside the box, The Creativity Post

TECHNOLOGY

The strange world of computer-generated novels, The Verge

HAPPINES...