Quote of the day
For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.
~TIMOTHY FERRIS, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
RELATIONSHIPS
Health and Marriage: The cortisol connection, Huffington Post | Tweet
Bad marriages can be sickening. Most people don’t have to be convinced of this, but for those who do, several decades of studies offer plenty of proof. Even so, very little is known about exactly how marriage quality affects health.
TIME MANAGEMENT
The morning routine experts recommend for peak productivity, Barking up the wrong tree | Tweet
What’s the best way to start your day so that you really get things done?
→The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
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So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
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Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
→The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
SELF-IMPROVEMENT
What it’s like to go without complaining for a month, Fast Company | Tweet
How different would your life be if you cut complaining out of it altogether? Is it even possible?
→Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life
PSYCHOLOGY
Why courage is more important than creativity, Psychology Today | Tweet
The first step of all innovations is destruction–and that takes courage.
→Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously
Why anxiety might lead to poor-decision making, Science of us | Tweet
The downsides of anxiety are well-documented: People who suffer from anxiety, and particularly its more extreme variants, often have a great deal of trouble doing things that the non-afflicted take for granted, whether schmoozing at a party or running out to do an errand.
→My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind
TECHNOLOGY
When exponential progress becomes reality, Medium | Tweet
Moore’s Law. The expectation that your iPhone keeps getting thinner and faster every two years. Happy 50th anniversary.
STARBUCKS
Starbucks’ new drink, the flat white, is made of hot marketing and foam, Fast Company | Tweet
Starbucks has already given me the vocabulary for the drink with advertising in its stores and on television, but I still have no clue what makes it special.
SPORTS
Women Players are golf’s future, offsetting men’s decline, Bloomberg | Tweet
While headlines proclaim that golf is in decline, Mike Whan presides over a part of the game that is surging ahead.
→The Golf Book: Twenty Years of the Players, Shots, and Moments That Changed the Game
WRITING
10 Tips on how to write believable crime and murder scenes, Live Write Thrive | Tweet
I’ve been around the criminal investigation world for three decades—first as a homicide detective, then as a forensic coroner. I was also the trigger-man on Emergency Response or SWAT Teams and now, in “retirement,” I’m reinventing myself as a crime fiction writer. So I’ve got hands-on experience in life, death, and writing.
Three ways to get your next story idea, The Write Practice | Tweet
Story ideas often come to us almost out of thin air—whether from an overheard conversation in a coffee shop, or just a random thought that pops into your head in the shower. But other times, you’re ready to write a new story and all that you’ve got is the blank page in front of you.