How being flabbergasted inspires. — Two pricey suburbs are lined up behind the Oakland/Berkeley hills in San Francisco’s East Bay. I once heard a standup comedian riff, Orinda is the Spanish word for ‘no black people’… and Lafayette is the French word. In the 1970s my parents bought a house in the larger, third suburb…

To 'learn respect' (for all the arts) it must be taught. When was respect lost? For decades public schools have cut funding for the arts (or redirected it to competitive sports). The past two generations have little to no hands-on appreciation for the skill and cerebral effort it.takes to create a painting, or music, or anything truly original and worthy. This was by design. A population of consumers without discernment is the result. (Cue applause from corporate accountants and their overlords.)

20 books I gave up on because I’m: too dumb, too smart, impatient or a squeamish wuss. — I have an untreated fiction addiction and get high on the ‘what if’ questions and brilliant writing in most of sci fi. Here are the 10% I gave up on before finishing in the past two years because they were: Too Grim (If grim is your thing, consider 1–6 as recommendations) 1 …

I rate books on how effectively they disrupt my life. There has been a wonderful science fiction shift in recent years… almost as if Douglas Adams inspired a next generation to add light and imagination to theories both hard and soft. …

Dystopias are easy. Like humor, Utopias aren’t. — Utopia is the happily ever after where most stories end because, well, the comfort of living in day to day bliss gets same old… which makes it clear why conflict is a storytelling essential. These 8 authors built ideal future worlds — societies where mutual cooperation evolved (or was forced)…

A sincere thank you for honoring (and reinforcing) your message with a small yet important detail. I clicked your book link. An overwhelming number of authors link Buy from Bezos. Yours doesn't. You chose Bookshop.org, which brought up my local independent bookstore. I got my copy of 'Survival of the Richest' at Golden Notebook in Woodstock NY last summer. This was a test. Mr Rushkoff—you passed! I wish every author was more mindful of who they support.

Shelf life sucks. — I once shopped at a ‘pick your own’ farm near Hana on Maui. We were given grocery baskets and a machete to tour a tropical food forest. The checkout counter was a large stump to hack apart fat sugarcanes to get to the juicy core. Biting into fresh sugarcane was…

This is the decision every creative person has to make to ward of pirates; do I fortify my ship with iron cladding and conscript lawyers to man the cannons, then wallow in defense mode? Ew. I chose to build a sleeker, quicker boat. I paint, I sketch, I write. I've…

You just made me realize I've insulted myself for creative escapism more than everyone else has. I should stop that. I've made my living as a painter for forty years. Patrons who come back for more say, "Your work makes me happy." My joke reply is, "Oh good. Now I don't have to get a therapist license and a practical job." What you wrote urges me stop being mean to me, or quite so dismissive of what I do. Thanks!