“it is very important to be idle with confidence”
I have often wondered whether especially those days when we are forced to remain idle are not precisely the days spent in the most profound activity. Whether our
On creative lives and the art of saying “no”
One of the striking things I noticed when writing REST was how often the people I was studying said no to things, arranged their lives to smoothy avoid
Christmas holidays: Time for teachers to unplug from work
Teachers, listen up: this holiday season, don’t grade papers, don’t answer email from parents and students, and don’t think about work. You’ll do a better job next year
How Richard Feynman had time for physics: “I have invented another myth for myself—that I’m irresponsible”
One of the pleasures working on a book like REST is that it provides a great excuse to read about the lives of all kind of fascinating people, and
“The best bosses know what balance is all about”
Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran warns against making the mistake of being online 24/7 in "The Mistake Employees Make Early In Their Career That Hurts Their Productivity:" Among
Nick Offerman on rest
This is how you do it. Learn from a master!
“mildly enjoying and completely forgetting an infinite series of disconnected ideas”
In 1926, in his classic yet often-forgotten The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas warned against engaging distractions like reading the newspaper. Newspaper reading is for most of us a
Abraham Crowley, Of Solitude
It's very old, but Crowley's essay on solitude is still worth reading: The First Minister of State has not so much business in public as a wise man
Salvador Dali: “at the moment of waking… the principal part— that is to say the sleep— of the work is already done”
I'm reading Salvador Dali's Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, his 1948 book about creativity. A lot of it is as crazy as you would expect. Beethoven with his
“Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading — that is a good life.”
From Annie Dillard's The Writing Life: How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one,