Apache OpenOffice - Official Site - The Free and Open Productivity Suite Malcolm Gladwell Is Underrated — I.M.H.O. I know - it’s like proposing The Beatles are underrated. Malcolm Gladwell is the king of non-fiction writing and publishing. His new book is a million-seller lock. But sometimes, popularity can obscure achievement, and such is the case with Gladwell (by the way, The Beatles are underrated, but that’s for another day). Among our tablet-toting, Foreign Policy-reading, Foucault-citing cultural elites, Gladwell’s name is rarely mentioned without a hint of ironising disdain. “Well I suppose that’s just the Malcolm Gladwell version (of a complex idea).” “It’s the kind of glib formula pioneered by Malcolm Gladwell.” “Yeah, Gladwell? When lists of “Most Influential Thinkers” are put together, Gladwell rarely makes the top cut. Non-fiction, ideas-based narratives are everywhere these days, but the space was opened up by the stunning success of The Tipping Point and Blink. Here’s another thing that distinguishes him: he can write. Gladwell is also a more serious thinker than his critics allow.
The Power of COURAGE «Fortune100coach's Weblog Fortune100coach's Weblog The Power of COURAGE “Feel the Fear and do it anyways.” It doesn’t take any courage to walk through your apartment door. But it’s a different story when that same door is engulfed in flames. People quite often think of courage as the absence of fear. Let me say that again: courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to act in the presence of fear. Why people often misunderstand courage is because people often misunderstand fear. But fear plays an important role in our lives by acting as a signal that we perceive a threat to our physical or psychological well-being. What makes fear a little tricky is that it doesn’t discriminate between different kinds of threats. Unfortunately, most of the fears we have in our lives are like the second kind: completely counterproductive. This is where courage enters the picture. In my case, the desire to be courageous arose when I was very young. So one small exercise I took on was to talk to people in elevators—even if just for a few minutes. i
Greg Egan’s Home Page Sometimes, I Write About Why I Write. This Is That. Note: this post was originally written on Feb 22, 2012. I've recently been readdressing many aspects of my life and my work, and in digging through my writing, found this. I shared it with a dear friend and was motivated to share it again with you all. I hope it speaks to you and gives you some insight to why I have done and will do what I do. This post is a bit of an experiment. So, I ask that you indulge me and do me a favor: Play this song while you read this post. You certainly don't have to. And lately, why I write has been a question on my mind. Sometimes, I know exactly what I'm doing when I post something deep and introspective and heartfelt. Sometimes, I just want to be crass. Sometimes, I want to explore emotion. Sometimes, I have something in me I just need to share. Sometimes, I want to call bullshit on what I, you and everyone else knows is bullshit. Sometimes, I am scared. Sometimes, I just hurt, and I need to bleed. Sometimes, I want you to laugh. This isn't my curse.
The Issue From the time we are small, we are given tasks to perform, starting with “make your bed,” “clean your room,” “take out the trash,” and “be nice to your sister.” Once we attend school, those requests begin to increase as we are assigned homework and projects to complete. During high school and college we have further demands thrust upon us as we gain specific interests, hobbies and passions, and as our social calendar begins to fill. So we each kludge together a system to track all that we juggle in life, from those little things we need to accomplish today, to appointments, to items we need to remember to pick up downtown, to those larger projects in the coming months and then those larger, grander dreams we want to fulfill someday. To add to the complexity of this, everyone manages multiple roles. Mismanaged Time From what we’ve seen, using one’s Inbox for storing hundreds — if not thousands — of emails as unfinished to-dos is a recipe for confusion, stress, and mismanaged time.
What are some things that full time writers know that most people don't? - Quora Poetry Isn't as Useless as a Lot of Poets Say It Is - Noah Berlatsky A recent speech at Yale inadvertently sums up what's wrong with the art form these days: Its gatekeepers believe poetry matters because it's poetry, not because of what it says. Rudyard Kipling and Nicki Minaj, poets. (Wikimedia, AP Images) Poetry is useless. That's the prevailing sentiment in our culture, as far as I can tell. Oddly, this isn't just the position of outsiders. Standing apart I looked at her and said – We have poetry So we do not die of history. Poetry, then, is contrasted with history and the world; it's outside cause and effect and even reason. Even without Alexander's painful reliance on clichéd phrases like "deeply felt," this is all familiar, of course. "There have been moments in our shared human history in particular parts of the world where poets and also singers have been banned," Alexander says. But why? Poetry is always already revolutionary, then. Of course, this is nonsense. The point here is that poetry, as poetry, is, in fact, useless.
Conflict Strategies for Nice People Do you value friendly relations with your colleagues? Are you proud of being a nice person who would never pick a fight? Unfortunately, you might be just as responsible for group dysfunction as your more combative team members. That’s because it’s a problem when you shy away from open, healthy conflict about the issues. If you think you’re “taking one for the team” by not rocking the boat, you’re deluding yourself. Teams need conflict to function effectively. Still, I meet people every day who admit that they aren’t comfortable with conflict. Sure, pulling your punches might help you maintain your self-image as a nice person, but you do so at the cost of getting your alternative perspective on the table; at the cost of challenging faulty assumptions; and at the cost of highlighting hidden risks. To overcome these problems, we need a new definition of nice. The secret of having healthy conflict and maintaining your self-image as a nice person is all in the mindset and the delivery. 1. 2.
What is the best way to improve writing skills and become a master of it? - Quora Letters of Note