“All that is gold does not glitter,⠀
Not all those who wander are lost;⠀
The old that is strong does not wither,⠀
Deep roots are not reached by the frost”-J.R.R. Tolkien
This week, we wrote about rebuilding endurance after breaking routines and the dangers of trying to do everything. There’s a post on the difference between Steven Pressfield’s territorial and hierarchical orientations, and we launched the Imperfectionist Book Club on The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin, which was selected by our readers.
We’d love to hear from you with thoughts or suggestions, or you can just say hello. Email or tweet us!
Some things we thought were worth sharing this week:
- He saves the animals. The mountains save him: On the importance of finding balance and refuge from the outdoors.
- We’re looking forward to watching: David Bowie: The Last Five Years on HBO, which airs on January 8. It’s a follow-up to David Bowie: Five Years. Time for a David Bowie documentary marathon?
- Speaking of David Bowie, he was a voracious reader, and his top 100 book list is great. His son started a book club in his honor. They’ll be reading one book from David Bowie’s list each month.
- Three fears that writers can use for inspiration: the fear of looking within, the fear of vulnerability, and the fear of failure.
- Favorite comic this week: A different way of thinking about average…
- Here’s some late advice on New Year’s resolutions from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, but it’s probably more applicable post January 1st: “So go ahead: make your resolutions. You have the right to make promises. And you have the right to break them. But you don’t have to make them during an evening of late-night drunkenness. That is what the rest of your sober life is for.
- Generalist? Specialist? Or a little bit of both?
- I admire Leo Babauta’s Depth Year: “No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to find the value in what you already own or what you’ve already started.”
- The five dimensions of curiosity: joyous exploration, deprivation sensitivity, stress tolerance, social curiosity, and thrill seeking.
- This is an important one: Perfectionism is more prevalent now than in the past. The headline from Quartz is a bit click-baity, but the information is rich. The article references a few studies that highlights the increase in three different types of perfectionism over time: self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and socially prescribed perfectionism.
- This research center in Japan is studying the reasons we need sleep: “As researchers probe outward into the mysterious darkness of sleepiness, these discoveries shine ahead of them like flashlight beams, lighting the way. How they all connect, how they may come together into a bigger picture, is still unclear.”
- Austin Kleon on how to improve through one of his wonderful newspaper blackout poems.
- Our favorite byte this week. Every day, we post a byte on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or you can check out our searchable collection of quotes.
. . .
