Good Sentences
I never thought I would find beautiful, good sentences in a business book such as Measure What Matters by John Doerr but found them I did. […]
Quotes — “information acquired are grasped in their relations to one another”
“But information is AN UNDIGESTED BURDEN unless it is understood. It is knowledge only as its material is comprehended. And understanding, comprehension, means that the various parts of the information acquired are grasped in their relations to one another — a result that is attained only when acquisition is accompanied by CONSTANT REFLECTION upon the meaning of what is studied.” —John Dewey, author of “How We Think” (1933)
The “Mundanity of Excellence”
The “Mundanity of Excellence” was coined by the sociologist Dan Chambliss. It says that really great performance often involves doing a lot of ordinary—even boring—tasks exceptionally over and over again, with the intention of trying to improve a little bit each time.
This ties in really neatly with the concept of “deliberate practice” as the improvement method in the book Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool.
When I came across the Mundanity of Excellence, […]
Quotes — “much the way a mechanic might learn about an engine by taking it apart”
“every so often I’ll hear writers say that there are other writers they would read if for no other reason than to marvel at the skill with which they can put together the sort of sentences that move us to read closely, to disassemble and reassemble them, much the way a mechanic might learn about an engine by taking it apart.” —Francine Prose, author “Reading Like a Writer”
White Space
I enjoy reading Dorie Clark—be it her articles or books—and her podcasts and interviews are awesome too. A few days ago I started reading her latest book, The Long Game.
Part one of the book stood out to me: white space, which is essentially about carving out time for opportunity. Can we carve out 20% of our time working on what we think will benefit us most? The 20% concept was taken from Google where their employees are empowered to be more creative and innovative. Dorie says:
There’s something compelling about the idea of cordoning off time to experiment and see where your passions take you. […]
Disambiguate
I came across the word disambiguate while studying for the Coursera Technical Writing course. This topic piqued my interest and has become one of my passion (or curiosity) projects.
When course instructor Elena Bazanova mentioned “disambiguating” by “studying complicated things and then explaining them clearly,” that struck a chord with me. […]
Så mycket bättre
I have started watching TV after moving to Sweden, and there’s a reason for that. I have not touched the TV for almost my entire adult life but made an exception this time for the sake of my Swedish language learning. I have identified three TV programs for this purpose: Nyhetsmorgon, Bonde söker fru, and Så mycket bättre.
One particular episode in Så mycket bättre that stood out to me is the latest one with Gustaf Norén role-playing as a music teacher. […]
Drawing Notebook Maps—The Austin Kleon Way
Today I want to share something wonderfully weird and interesting (as always!) by Austin Kleon—how to make a map of your mind. […]