Quote of the day
IDEAS ARE THE CURRENCY OF LIFE. Not money. Money gets depleted until you go broke. But good ideas buy you good experiences, buy you better ideas, buy you better experiences, buy you more time, save your life. Financial wealth is a side effect of the “runner’s high” of your idea muscle.
~CLAUDIA AZULA ALTUCHER, author of Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are The Currency Of The 21st Century
CREATIVITY
Sparking creative ideas when you need vs. want to, Creative Something | Tweet
There are two instances I typically find myself unable to come up with creative ideas during. You’ve undoubtedly encountered each of them yourself at one time or another. Knowing which type of creative block you’re encountering is important for knowing which steps you can take to overcome it.
→Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are The Currency Of The 21st Century
HAPPINESS
An interview with the French author who has happiness figured out, Science of us | Tweet
For decades, the French have ranked among the world’s most pessimistic people, so it’s fitting — in a life-is-a-farce-and maybe-also-merde kind of way — that a Frenchman should write a provocative, possibly even helpful, book about happiness.
→Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide
THE BRAIN
What it takes to change your brain’s patterns after the age 25, FastCo | Tweet
Most of our brain’s patterns are solidified by our mid-20s, but it’s possible to change your brain’s pathways and patterns with these methods.
→Neuroscience for Leadership: Harnessing the Brain Gain Advantage 
TECHNOLOGY
For women, by women, about men, The New Yorker | Tweet
In “Super Sad True Love Story,” Gary Shteyngart’s novel set in a social-media dystopia, each person is publicly assigned a “fuckability” score, determined by various algorithms.
→Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel
BRANDING
The power–and peril–of a brand built on ‘Bitch’, Upstart | Tweet
Nicole Lapin calls herself a bitch. Well, a “rich bitch.” And she wants you to be one, too.
→Rich Bitch: A Simple 12-Step Plan for Getting Your Financial Life Together…Finally
BUSINESS
The Mariah Carey business model, Bloomberg | Tweet
How to be a pop star without new hits or successful tours.
BOOKS
Are the later Harry Potter books more ‘adult’?, Priceonomics | Tweet
Is Harry Potter, the immensely popular series of young adult fantasy novels by J.K. Rowling, and films based on those novels, “just for kids”?
→Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
ENTERTAINMENT
This brilliant sci-fi film is one of the best movies you’ll see all year, Business Insider | Tweet
So many science fiction films have tried, and some have succeeded, in creating a unique dystopian vision of the future. Where “Ex Machina” stands out from the rest, however, is in the way that it portrays a future that sometimes seems hellish, but only sometimes feels like a nightmare.
WRITING
35 Questions to ask your characters from Marcel Proust, The Write Practice | Tweet
When Marcel Proust was fourteen years old, his friend Antoinette asked him this list of questions. In 2003, the album upon which Proust wrote his answers to the questionnaire auctioned for €102,000.
The lazy technique that can cripple suspenseful chapter endings, Helping Writers Become Authors | Tweet
Do you know what’s the most dangerous part of your book? Try chapter endings.
→Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success