Ted Gioia shared a link to an online quiz called antidepressant or Tolkien. If you’re struggling with character names for your fantasy novel search the pharmaceutical industry. Are chemists big fantasy fans?
Draw what you see, not what you know
I’ve heard this sentence used many times, especially in art classes. Draw what you see, not what you know. If you ask most people to draw an eye they’ll draw a rugby ball shape with a circle in it – a conceptual model of an eye. However, if you look closely at an eye you’ll…
Shopping list
The other day I found someone’s grocery list in my shopping basket at my local supermarket. The list had the following items on it: Someone out there makes meatloaf. Mind blown.
The true definition of words used in office jobs
Could the next Freud be a large language model?
When I was 18 I was diagnosed with depression. I’d applied for a job and part of the interview process included undergoing psychometric testing. I got the job but had to attend weekly psychotherapy sessions as part of my employment. The sessions were on a Wednesday. I was 18 and cocky, so I’d sit there…
Art is patience
My son draws pictures. He puts pencil to paper and in a few minutes has a drawing that he’s proud of. Colouring in might take a few minutes more, but then we’re done and we move onto the next picture. Like me, he’ll one day want to draw something that resembles what he has in…
The abyss of solitude
I shared a house with a woman. Two woman, in fact, but here I’ll discuss only the one. She smiled a lot and was always up for going out. It was rare that I’d find her at home over the weekend, there was always a polo match, or a picnic or a wine festival to…
Writing online – and writing that matters
The g-spot is a distraction. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for the past six months, which is when I last published an article here. I’ve been focusing on completing the third draft of the novel I’m writing, on writing that’s ‘important’, which implied that the articles I wrote here were frivolous. However, if I’m…
The gift of being read to
A woman lies in a bed. She’s ill, fragile. A man sits next to her bed, he’s reading aloud to her. Her eyes are closed as she listens. This is the one thing he can do for her. We read to our children to introduce them to the world. It is through reading to them…
Thinking and living
I have COVID, again. This is my second dance with the ‘Rona, and on this spin, it hasn’t hit me as hard as it did a year ago. But being home and avoiding people has given me time to think about things. I’ve been thinking a lot about thinking and what we get from thinking,…