Merce Cardus's Blog, page 70

MONDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Forgetting

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Quote of the day

Many writers, poets and philosophers have attempted to express our impotence with regard to memory, but never more touchingly than Kant did with that command. To tell yourself to stop thinking about something is one thing, to remind yourself in writing of what you need to forget is one powerless step further.

~DOUWE DRAAISMA, author ofForgetting: Myths, Perils and Compensations

WRITING

Writing the Cozy Mystery–Whodunit?, Elizabet...

What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything

Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft.

In his bestselling An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Her...

Where Is Home?

The Art of Stillnessconsiders the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug.

Where do you come from?

It’s such a simple question, but these days, of course, simple questions bring ever more complicated answers.

People are always asking me where I come from, and they’re expecting me to say India, and they’re absolutely right insofar as 100 percent of my blood and ancestry does co...

WEEKEND LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Reclaiming Conversation

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Quote of the day

We had a love affair with a technology that seemed magical. But like greatmagic, it worked by commanding our attention and not letting us see anything but what the magician wanted us to see. Now we are ready to reclaim our attention, for solitude, for friendship, for society.

~SHERRY TURKLE, author ofReclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age

WRITING

Your Fiction May Be Failing for One Simple Reason: You’re Not...

Motivation: The Gas In Your Tank

As a technology pioneer at MIT and as the leader of three successful start-ups, Kevin Ashton experienced firsthand the all-consuming challenge of creating something new. Now, in How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery,a tour-de-force narrative twenty years in the making, Ashton leads us on a journey through humanity’s greatest creations to uncover the surprising truth behind who creates and how they do it.

Why does Woody Allen avoid the ceremony of the Os...

Embrace Irrational You

Behavioral economists see humanity as a giant irrational mass. Yet that doesn’t mean they’re innate pessimists. Rather, they see a giant blank canvas on which masterpieces can be built.

Duke University professor (and bona fide cool guy psychologist) Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrationalteaches an important lesson about perspective. Our goal as human beings needs to accept that we’re wrong sometimes, figure out why exactly we faltered, and commit to making substantial improvements....

Turning Pro is Free, But…

Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Worknavigates the passage from the amateur life to a professional practice.

Two models as modes of salvation

When we hate our lives and ourselves, two models present themselves as modes of salvation:

The first is the therapeutic model.In the therapeutic model, we are told (or we tell ourselves) that we are ‘sick’. What ails us is a ‘condition’ or a ‘disease’.

A condition or a disease may be remedied by ‘treatment’. Right now, we are ‘...

‘Fur Therapy’ and Other Treats That Can Help You Change a Bad Habit

There are 21 strategies for changing habits, says Gretchen Rubin, author of Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. The most fun is one that incorporates the usage of treats. But “treats” isn’t synonymous with small rewards.

The strategy of treats

There’s 21 strategies in habit change and they’re all very useful, but there’s one that is the most fun strategy and that is the strategy of treats.

Now it’s very important to know what a treat is. A treat is not a reward....

HUMP DAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing, Self-Publishing & Better Living: Don’t Manage Your Time, Manage Your Life

Quote of the day

If you want to lead, you must learn. If you want to continue to lead, you must continue to learn. Invest in yourself first.

~JOHN C. MAXWELL, author ofThe Leadership Handbook: 26 Critical Lessons Every Leader Needs

WRITING

29 Habits of Highly Successful Writers, The author’s Nook| Tweet

Here’s what I’ve found personally helpful, and the simple habits that some of the most famous authors exercise.
On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life that Lasts (Master...

Why Improbable Events Happen?

In The Improbability Principle, the renowned statistician David J. Hand argues that extraordinarily rare events are anything but. In fact, they’re commonplace. Not only that, we should all expect to experience a miracle roughly once every month.

What is chance?

The long history of the word ‘probability’, as well as its importance and the confusion that still surrounds it, are reflected by the fact that there are many other words for very closely related concepts. These includeodds, uncertai...