The Problem With Building Good Habits
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Ever since I stopped building good habits, I feel much better. I know, I know — it’s a controversial statement in a culture where habit-building is prized as the silver bullet of self-improvement. And, to be fair, I myself used to be…
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Since I started writing professionally three years ago, I’ve read dozens of books, style guides, and advice columns on how to write well. Out of all these, The Sense of Style is the only writing guide I can unreservedly recommend. It’s the one…
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During my lowest period in New York, almost the only thing I found consoling was watching music videos on YouTube, curled on the sofa with my headphones on, listening again and again to the same voices finding the register for…
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When my local cinema rescreened Aftersun this week, I experienced things I’ve never seen a movie do. After the final scene, the entire theater remained silent. Nobody moved. Slowly, you could hear people crying, sniffing, wiping their tears. Even when…
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When Hanya Yanagihara published A Little Life in 2015, she caused a literary earthquake. The book dealt with depression, trauma, and pain in a very explicit way, making it one of the most controversial texts of the past decade. It…
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It’s strange writing this out, but lately, I feel like I’ve lost my ability to read. Long-form texts are particularly challenging for me. Sentences are incredibly hard to get through. And don’t even get me started on chapters. Chapters have…
“Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.”
Alan Watts