Quote of the day
In New York City alone more than $100,000 a day is paid in gratuities to waiters, hotel employes, chauffers, barbers and allied classes. But New York has reached a subserviency to the tipping custom that is amazing in a democratic country.
This vast tribute is paid for not more real service than the Barbery pirates rendered to those from whom they exacted tribute. It is given to workers who are paid by the employers to perform the services enjoyed by the public. If the Barbary pirates could see the ease with which a princely tribute is exacted from a docile public by the tip-takers, they would yearn to be reincarnated as waiters in America–the Land of the Fee!
~WILLIAM RUFUS SCOTT, author of The itching palm; a study of the habit of tipping in America
CREATIVITY
Creativity is not a symptom, it’s a system, Creative Something | Tweet
To be creative is not the same as creating a painting, writing a book, or performing on Broadway, and it’s well past time we stopped treating it as such. To be creative is to create change in the world around you.
→Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes
The idea person, Medium | Tweet
The Idea Person waltzes into the office on a Monday morning feeling light as a feather, her mind blooming like a lotus flower. An idea is unfurling! And what a marvelous idea it is, shimmering with promise, twinkling with the anticipation of what could be. Though the idea at this stage is barely a ghost, Idea Person can already see, taste, or touch some piece of it—a flawless sentence, a scene that brings a lump to the throat, a striking concept, an intuitive interaction.
GENDER
Why are more women than men freelancing?, Fast Company | Tweet
New findings show that women are more likely to be independent workers. Freelances union founder Sara Horowitz explores why.
FOOD
Extreme-aged steak: the gourmet world of meat with mould on, The Guardian | Tweet
Chefs are pushing the boundaries of beef by hanging meat for ever-increasing periods. The resulting steaks are sensational – but a little goes a very long way.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
The power of ‘good enough’, The Atlantic | Tweet
How settling can make people happier and more satisfied than gunning for “the best”
→The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
PSYCHOLOGY
8 Things top practicers do differently, The Creativity Post | Tweet
We’ve all heard the phrase “practice smarter, not harder,” but what does that really mean? What does “smarter” practice actually look like? A study of collegiate piano majors suggests that the key lies in how we handle mistakes.
BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
To tip or not to tip, Aeon | Tweet
Rude in Tokyo, rude not to in New York–tipping mystifies tourists, economists and anthropologists. Should we stop?
→The itching palm; a study of the habit of tipping in America
BOOKS
Finding Susan, LA Review of books
| Tweet
If you read anything about Susan Sontag written since her death in 2004, it won’t take long for you to stumble across the fact that she could be, as Terry Castle puts it in her agonizingly generous essay “Desperately Seeking Susan,” “weally weally mean!” Sontag’s arrogance, her condescension, her inhospitality — often, the earlier and more prominently these ad feminam excoriations figure in the review at hand, the less earnest the engagement with her work that follows.
WRITING
15 Pairs of words that seem etymollogically related but aren’t, The Week | Tweet
A crayfish is not a fish, an outrage is not a rage, and there’s no bomb in bombast. Words suggest one thing, but their histories tell us another.
Find out why your awesome protagonist is boring readers to death, HWBA | Tweet
It’s important to keep in mind that while readers may come to share that love for your character,they’ll probably never reach the depths of passion that would interest them in watching, for hours on end, as your awesome protagonist does … nothing.
→Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story