I’m not a habitual procrastinator. But when there is time before the deadline for a project, sometimes I put it off. (You know, just like everyone else.) Here are bad reasons to procrastinate: Good reasons to procrastinate (and what to do about them) Here are good reasons to procrastinate: That last reason is the interesting…
Newsletter 110. Dead people I once knew are still making me smarter — and kinder. Plus, debunking the MIT study about failed AI projects, the Anthropic piracy settlement on hold, three people to follow, and three books to read. I see dead people I’m older than most of you. Retirement age (but I’m not retiring)….
Every day you have decisions to make. Often those decisions are easy. When the choice to do the right thing is also the profitable choice, it’s easy to choose. But lots of decisions aren’t like that. For most decisions, there are two choices: For example: If you’ve got a mortgage to pay, a kid who…
Maybe you took a break this summer. Maybe you’re going back to work soon. Ask yourself: Am I happy doing what I’m doing? Am I happy working where I’m working? That book I was working on — is there something about it that I ought to change? If I could change something, what would I…
Be expert at something. Be interested in a lot of things. Be curious about everything. Every few years — or whenever you’re getting bored: Deepen and broaden your expertise. Expand your interests. Unleash your curiosity. And whatever you’re learning, write about it.
I do developmental editing. That means I edit text for everything from meaning and connotation to rhetorical consistency to subject-verb agreement. Obviously (he wrote arrogantly) that requires judgment, and cannot be replaced by a machine. But what about copy editors (or as they are known in the UK, subeditors)? Copy editors check text for spelling…
At some point in the 1950s, the mathematician began to sing. Tom Lehrer, who died this week at the age of 97, started by beavering away on a conventional career as a mathematics professor with a side hobby composing satirical songs and performing them on the piano. He turned the songs into an album and…
If you follow this space regularly, you know I’m driving around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick this week. For the most part, I find that Canadians do things at least as well as what I’m used to in the U.S. — usually better. And the road signage is remarkably similar, down to the type used…
Airbnb gets a lot of snark these days for people’s perceptions of the extra things they are supposed to do. They go in thinking they are getting a bargain, and then find themselves doing the host’s housework. If this is you, you are using it wrong. How to evaluate an Airbnb stay I am in…