Quote of the day
Test first, test right. And if you don’t have celiac disease, don’t assume mainstream medicine has failed you. Instead, consider the possibility that you fear of gluten is just the latest in a long line of groundless dietary paranoias, based on nothing more than a myth and superstition, spoiling your favorite foods and putting you at risk for eating disorders.
~ALAN LEVINOVITZ, author of The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat
MOTIVATION
To overcome an irrational fear…, Seth’s Blog | Tweet
…replace it with a habit.
→The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
PSYCHOLOGY
Mixed signals: why people misunderstand each other, The Atlantic | Tweet
The psychological quirks that make it tricky to get an accurate read on someone’s emotions.
→No One Understands You and What to Do About It
PRODUCTIVITY
The risks associated with ‘Productivity pills’ outweigh the benefits, NYT | Tweet
A few years ago Adderall was touted as a “smart pill.” But after research showed little or no improvement in cognition under its influence, Adderall is now gaining a reputation as a “productivity pill.”
→Neuroethics: An Introduction with Readings
FOOD
How the gluten-free movement is ruining our relationship with food, The Washington Post | Tweet
Gluten, which gives bread, pizza dough and other starchy foods their chewiness, is one of the most beloved proteins in the world. But it’s also quickly becoming one of the most feared — at least here in the United States. An estimated 20 million Americans believe that eating it causes them distress. And 100 million people, meanwhile, say that they are actively working to eliminate gluten from their diet.
→The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat
RELATIONSHIPS
Feeling the ‘Rocky’ in relationships, Huffington Post | Tweet
The immediate devastation in Sichuan was also followed by a dramatic spike in the divorce rate, a phenomenon that captured international attention — and sparked widespread speculation — at the time. Did the deadly earthquake actually cause the jump in marital breakups?
→On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits
CULTURE
What fiction has to say about the libraries of the future, The Conversation | Tweet
Authors and artists have long imagined otherworldly libraries – magical libraries, mythical libraries, libraries of a distant past, future or planet.
PHILOSOPHY
The psychology (and philosophy) of ‘no regrets’, Pacific Standard | Tweet
A clinical psychologist argues that Nietzsche is better than any pop self-health book.
→Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and No One
TECHNOLOGY
Write the perfect email to anyone with this creepy site, Wired | Tweet
When my editor Joe told me to write this story, I knew with algorithmic certainty how to respond: “Done. Absolutely. It’s taken care of.”
→ https://www.crystalknows.com/home
WRITING
What to do when your protagonist won’t play, The Write Practice | Tweet
Not to scare you, but there’s more than one kind of writer’s block.
→The Sundered (Among the Mythos Book 1)
Find out if your prologue is destroying your story’s subtext, Helping Writers Become Authors | Tweet
You hear it all the time: prologues are evil. (And writers everywhere, commence howling.) Now I’ll grant that “evil” is a slight exaggeration.
→Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story