That's the way creativity works, Dylan told Robert Hilburn, of the Los Angeles Times. You're always writing into a tradition. "My songs are either based on old Protestant hymns or Carter Family songs or variations of the blues form," he said. "What happens is, I'll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That's the way I meditate. . . . I'll be playing Bob Nolan's 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds,' for instance, in my head constantly--while I'm driving a car or talking to a person or sitting around or whatever. People will think they are talking to me and I'm talking back, but I'm not. I'm listening to a song in my head. At a certain point, some of the words will change and I'll start writing a song." via

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我们家基本上不开电视，晚上也没人抱着手机和iPad（有时还是会瞅一眼），JT 和他哥小时候不一样，也就没有看电视和手机iPad的习惯，晚上玩玩积木，和我玩玩球，或是我抱着他讲讲故事，这样很好。JR呢，写完作业就弹琴，和弟弟玩，或者边听HomePod里的音乐，边和我们聊天。

如果电视手机突然从所有家庭消失，每个人的幸福感都会增加，我想。

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Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost. - Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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不要说“不要”

以前，在家带娃，我会不断地说“不要这么做”，“那个很危险”。

如今，每当我想要开口说“不要”，就会想到这三个故事。读完之后，你会和我一样，换一种方式与孩子、同事、朋友说话。

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If the person tells you why their city, relationship, or job is great - take it with a pinch of salt. If they tell you why it’s terrible - take it like a handful of gold. If someone swims upstream against their identity or incentives, it probably holds some deep truth to it.

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天之道，利而不害；圣人之道，为而不争。 - 老子

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Winners take care of themselves; losers never do. - Jesse Livermore

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我幼时，有一位最敬爱的国文教师看出我不知摆脱的毛病，尝在我的课卷后面加这样的批语：“长枪短戟，用各不同，但精其一，已足致胜。汝才有偏向，姑发展其所长，不必广心博骛也。”十年以来，说了许多废话，看了许多废书，做了许多不中用的事，走了许多没有目标的路，多尝试，少成功，回忆师训，殊觉赧然，冷眼观察，世间像我这样暗中摸索的人正亦不少。大节固不用说，请问街头那纷纷群众忙的为什么？为什么天天做明知其无聊的工作，说明知其无聊的话，和明知其无聊的朋友们假意周旋？在我看来，这都由于”摆脱不开”。因为人人都”摆脱不开”，所以生命便成了一幕最大的悲剧。 - 朱光潜

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朱光潜谈读书

我喜欢读这类中文作者的书：他们出生于清末民初，经历过私塾教育,而后远赴欧美日俄留学。他们有扎实的中文功底，同时又接受了西洋文化的熏陶，受益于此，他们的文字和思想中西结合，视野开阔。这类作者在49年前的作品都是我喜欢读的。

朱光潜就是其中之一。他在1930年代旅欧期间，为了赚取稿费维持生活，曾经为国内开明书局撰稿，并编辑成一本《给青年的十二封信》。这十二封信里的第一封，讲的就是如何读书。其中有四点建议，值得你我学习。

首先，朱先生同意不读新书的宗旨。

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3000万美金购入域名的 voice.com 停止服务

两年前，我在 MFM 播客里听到了 Michael Saylor 以3000万美金出售 voice.com 的故事。

两年后，我读到了 voice.com 停止服务的消息。

通过搜索，我知道 Voices.com 是一个与配音员求职以及雇佣配音员有关的网站，总部位于加拿大安大略省伦敦。该公司拥有超过50万的个人和公司用户。据说该网站是同类业务的网站中规模最大的一个。

创立于2003年，收购 voice.com 是在2019年， 也许是公司最鼎盛的时期。

然而，一个无可挑剔的域名，并没有让这家公司经久不衰，就像我读到这个新闻的这篇文章写的：

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我认为，从这件事中得到的一个重要启示是，一个好的域名是帮助企业发展的重要资产，但企业要取得成功，需要的不仅仅是一个有价值的域名。
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同时，尽管公司没了域名还在，要想以成本价再次出售 voice.com，是一件多么困难的事。

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谚曰：莫用三爷，废职亡家。盖子为少爷，婿为姑爷，妻兄弟为舅爷也。 - 汪辉祖

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There's no sort of feedback mechanism which rewards low time preference behavior because making a sacrifice now is essentially the crux of low time preference behavior, is that you sacrifice now so you can have something later. But under a fiat standard, what you get is you sacrifice now and it doesn't matter. So of course you have less motivation, less incentive to make sacrifices now. And that's something that I think a lot of people kind of realize, is that you can kind of live paycheck to paycheck and not worry about tomorrow and things will be kind of okay and you're not sort of improving, but you're ossified in whatever sort of lifestyle you're in. And it's stagnation, I guess, but people are okay with it. via

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民齐者强。 - 荀子

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There isn't any symbolism [in The Old Man and the Sea]. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit.

Ernest Hemingway
Letter to Bernard Berenson
13th September 1952

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Whenever you can, tell stories instead of explaining stuff. Humans love stories, and we hate having stuff explained to us. Use Jesus as an example: He spoke almost exclusively in parables, and allowed everybody to draw their own lessons from his great storytelling. And he did very well. via

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If you don't go out of your way to be hated by bad people, you are probably doing less good than you can. via

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A phenomenon I would notice again and again throughout my career: For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn't matter if you are getting the story right. via

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“超效率！”这话在急于近利的世人看来，也许要惊为太高蹈的论调了。但一味亟于效率，结果就会流于浅薄粗疏，无可救药。中国人在全世界是被推为最重实用的民族的，凡事向都怀一个极近视的目标：娶妻是为了生子，养儿是为了防老，行善是为了福报，读书是为了做官，不称入基督教的为基督教信者而称为“吃基督教”的，不称投身国事的军士为军人而称为“吃粮”的，流弊所至，在中国，甚么都只是吃饭的工具，甚么都实用，因之，就甚么都浅薄。试就学校教育的现状看罢：坏的呢，教师目的但在地位、薪水，学生目的但在文凭、资格；较好的呢，教师想把学生嵌入某种预定的铸型去，学生想怎样揣摩世尚毕业后去问世谋事。在真正的教育面前，总之都免不掉浅薄粗疏。效率原是要顾的，但只顾效率，究竟是蠢事。青年为国家社会的生力军，如果不从根本上培养能力，凡事近视，贪浮浅的近利，一味袭蹈时下陋习，结果纵不至于“一蟹不如一蟹”，亦止是一蟹仍如一蟹而已。国家社会还有甚么希望可说。

摘抄自近代教育家夏丏尊给《给青年的十二封信》写的序文，写于1918年元旦

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关于初稿的三个建议

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对我和我认识的大多数其他作家来说，写作并不令人陶醉。事实上，我能写出任何东西的唯一方法就是写出非常非常糟糕的初稿。 - Anne Lamott
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这句话不适用于我。事实上，由于时间有限，我不能让自己写出一版“非常非常糟糕的初稿”，然后再花上一倍甚至更多的时间去修改它。如果我的成品是10分，我的初稿需要有7分以上的品质。

除了这点之外，Anne 的这篇“糟糕的初稿”让我读起来饶有趣味，并且至少有三个建议，符合我的经验，让我忍不住想推荐给你。

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It's only by risking something important that we can produce good work and form meaningful relationships. The possibility of judgment is the price we pay for real love. - Ava

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