Posts Tagged: reading

The important kind of freedom

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If, like me, you hadn’t read David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest, before his suicide, a good place to start is his 2005 speech to the graduating class of Kenyon University.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

Richard Feynman the explainer

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There’s a beautifully written essay by someone who worked on a project with Richard Feynman, the quantum electrodynamics physicist. The writer describes how Richard loved to explain subjects normally considered difficult and complex in simple, easy terms, and how he didn’t consider that he’d finished learning something until he had taught it to others. I… Read more »

Naval historical fiction: Patrick O

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Go thou and beg, borrow or steal Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander and enter into a world of entertaining adventure and moving friendships. O’Brian’s hero, gregarious Jack Aubrey, and his geeky sidekick Stephen Maturin are such well-developed characters, I half expect to turn a corner and run into them someday—despite knowing they led wholly fictional… Read more »