By Jenny Odell January 15, 2020 Arts & Culture An encounter with Emerson’s essays. Caspar David Friedrich, Woman before the Rising Sun, 1818 There’s a treacherously placed bookstore in my neighborhood. To go almost anywhere from my apartment, I have to pass Walden Pond Books, and it’s next door to my usual coffee shop, so even if I didn’t decide to go in on the first pass, I probably will
2. Articles by other Writers
June 5, 2025
How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure
Executive Summary People are quick to blame themselves for failure. But not doing something because you’re afraid to get started isn’t going to help you grow. Here are four strategies to help you get over the hump. Start by redefining what failure means to you. If you define failure as the discrepancy between what you hope to achieve (such as getting a job offer) and what you might achieve (learning
June 1, 2025
Are You Living Life or Just Planning Your Biography?
One of the most startling findings of modern psychology is how bad we are at guessing what will make us happy. Not only are we lousy at predicting what will satisfy us, we often misremember our happiness in the past. In perhaps one of the best online talks I’ve ever watched, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman speaks about the difference between the experiencing and remembering selves (if you don’t have time