Any first rate novel or story must have in it the strength of a dozen fairly good stories that have been sacrificed to it. A good workman can’t be a cheap workman; he can’t be stingy about wasting material, and he cannot compromise.
mr youse needn’t be so spry by Edward Estlin Cummings
mr youse needn’t be so spry
concernin questions artyeach has his tastes but as for i
i likes a certain partygimme the he-man’s solid bliss
for youse ideas i’ll match yousea pretty girl who naked is
is worth a million statues
It is pleasant to observe how free the present age is in laying taxes on the next. FUTURE AGES SHALL TALK OF THIS; THIS SHALL BE FAMOUS TO ALL POSTERITY. Whereas their time and thoughts will be taken up about present things, as ours are now.
Books Which Have Influenced Me – Robert Louis Stevenson
The most influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction. They do not pin the reader to a dogma, which he must afterwards discover to be inexact; they do not teach him a lesson, which he must afterwards unlearn. They repeat, they rearrange, they clarify the lessons of life; they disengage us from ourselves, they constrain us to the acquaintance of others; and they show us the web of experience, not as we can see it for ourselves, but with a singular change—that monstrous, consuming ego of ours being, for the nonce, struck out.
The Wrong Stuff : Hoodoos, Hedge Funds, and Alibis: Victor Niederhoffer on Being Wrong
It’s terrible to be a bad loser. I like Soros’s proverb that you should never marry a woman you wouldn’t want to divorce.
The Wrong Stuff : Hoodoos, Hedge Funds, and Alibis: Victor Niederhoffer on Being Wrong
Bill Simmons: World Cup’s 20 questions – ESPN
I love the Cup because it stripped away all the things about professional sports that I’ve come to despise. No sideline reporters. No JumboTron. No TV timeouts. No onslaught of replays after every half-decent play. No gimmicky team names like the “Heat” or the “Thunder.” (You know what the announcers call Germany? The Germans. I love this.) No announcers breathlessly overhyping everything or saying crazy things to get noticed. We don’t have to watch 82 mostly half-assed games to get to the playoffs. We don’t have 10 graphics on the screen at all times. We don’t have to sit there for four hours waiting for a winner because pitchers are taking 25 seconds to deliver a baseball.
“Hugh Morton’s famous image of Johnny Cash holding aloft a tattered American flag. –NC, 1974.” HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA & GOD BLESS JOHNNY CASH « The Selvedge Yard.
Ben Casnocha: The Blog: How to Get Hired
Ben Casnocha infers two myths from Derek Sivers’ How to Get Hired:
The first is that we all have one or two things we are destined to do. In fact, I think you can become good (and thus) really interested in a range of things. The second is that the way to find what you “really want to do” is through inspection and reflection. In fact, introspection seems never to bear the fruit you’re promised; personal discoveries and self-knowledge seem sooner found via experiments and activity.
Because growth curves are asymptotic, I am convinced it is better to get pretty good at a lot of things rather than investing your scarce time in becoming marginally better at a couple of things.
Wehr in the World: Squibs. It may also be easier/more efficient to maintain a state of pretty-goodness than a state of mastery.
This is a surprisingly great interview with Jason Segel (via Austin). My favorite bit:
I had two friends in high school who sort of showed me how a piano works. And I just spent two years being terrible at it until I was good at it. That’s just me. There’s no way I’m actually intrinsically talented at writing, acting, playing music, puppeteering. It’s that I’m willing to be shit at them for a while, until I’m good at them.
101 Fast Recipes for Grilling. Note to self.
DOCUMERICA Project by the Environmental Protection Agency
For the Documerica Project (1971-1977), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s.
Reflexiones del Comandante en Jefe
Fidel Castro has a blog, apparently. Recent posts focus on the World Cup and the coming nuclear war.
A modular bike for gettin’ groceries. It reattaches to the seat/rear wheel when you hit the road again. Fixed Gear Gallery :: Grogery Getter Contest Submission. (via)
The War on Mediocrity – Meta-MetaFiltered wisdom
A digest of advice from the masses.
What’s the relationship between money, ambition, and happiness? – Barking up the wrong tree
Peers have an effect on your own ambition. More money acquired → more happiness. More money desired → less happiness. I like Eric Barker’s 3-point takeaway near the end, too.
What’s the relationship between money, ambition, and happiness? – Barking up the wrong tree
It’s fine to go through life happy, in other words, but I suspect we also want to go through life without becoming big fat self-absorbed jackasses. Children really help in that regard.
The World’s Reaction to Landon Donovan’s Game Winning Goal. Awesome. That was such a good moment. Goosebumps over and over.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Mark Larson 