Welcome to another edition of the Pink newsletter, which goes out to more than 150,000 subscribers every other Tuesday and which always offers 3 interesting things and 1 short Pinkcast video.
3 THINGS: 14 writing tips, the 2-hour rule, and a dystopian tale
1. Advice
Bret Stephens, a journalist and editor who’s now a (somewhat controversial) columnist for the New York Times took a step back from his daily demands to offer 14 nuggets of advice for writers. Whatever sort of word-slinging you do, these are lessons worth following. Among Stephens’s gems: “If you find writing easy, you’re doing it wrong.” (Tips for Aspiring Op-Ed Writers).
2. Life hack
Zat Rana decided to start blocking off a two-hour period once every week to do something unusual: Think. Just think. Turns out that Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and others did much the same thing. They regularly spent a few hours doing nothing but thinking. Says Rana, “I can quite honestly say that this is the highest return activity in my life.” (I’ve adopted a ‘2-hour rule’ based on a habit that led Einstein, Darwin, and Nietzsche to brilliance — and it’s the highest ROI of anything I’ve done).
3. Book
It took me 30 years, but I finally got around to reading The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel. I wish I hadn’t waited so long. It’s extraordinary. Don’t make my mistake, folks. Read this one when you can. (Buy it at Amazon, BN.com, iBooks, or IndieBound).
PINKCAST: The power of an “emotional first aid kit”
In this 125-second Pinkcast, the wise and wonderful Bonnie St. John joins me to offer a smart and original tip for surviving a crappy day.
You can watch the video below.
As always, thanks for subscribing!
Cheers,
Daniel Pink