Ornette Coleman on collaboration: “I want them to follow themselves, but to be with me”
From a 1987 interview With Penn State professor Michael Jarrett: I always prefer musicians that play with me to play independent of myself but with me.... To me,
Marx on “What is a working-day?”
Oxford, 2008 From Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1: “What is a working-day? What is the length of time during which capital may consume the labour-power whose daily value
Wealth “is disposable time, and nothing more”
From The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties, Deduced from Principles of Political Economy, in a Letter to Lord John Russell (published anonymously and later credited to
“the first step to the investigation of the creative mind is the historical approach”
From the opening page of Rosamund E. M. Harding's The Anatomy of Inspiration: We venture to suggest, therefore, that the first step to the investigation of the creative
Words every author should memorize
"So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say."
“I resolved never to read a mathematical book for more than a quarter of an hour at a time, without a break”
Last night I was out with some friends at a birthday celebration at our local pub, and-- as often happens among people of a certain age-- the conversation
“A complete relaxation of the body often gives freedom to the intellect”
Around World War I, there were several business writers who advised readers about how to balance work and rest-- particularly mental rest-- in the modern office. Bertie Charles Forbes
“Busy men find life very short:” Seneca on busyness, leisure and time
Yesterday I read Seneca's essay "On The Shortness of Life." I read his Letters from a Stoic when I was on sabbatical in Cambridge, and recently saw a reference
“You waste years by not being able to waste hours”
In Rest, I talk briefly about Amos Tversky's and Daniel Kahneman's time at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences as an example of a super-productive
The culture of overwork is not a new problem: American writers were describing rest as a “Forgotten Art” in 1876
Every now and then I come across some old essay that’s worth preserving and sharing. Recently I came across this 1876 piece by a Scottish-born American physician, Alexander