Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

The Losing Bet

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My technical incompetence has forced me to re-post the announcement on the Losing Bet. For those in Washington and interested you can watch a trailer here. (Click on the announcement below to bring it to actual reading size.)

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

A man sits with his head resting on his hand, surrounded by crossed-out words like "nonsense," "babble," and "rubbish" in red text.

The Learning Curve

Stephen King’s most misused piece of writing advice

A thesaurus isn’t for finding fancy words; it’s a resource to help you keep your rhythm.

David Perell, in a short-sleeve white shirt, sits in front of a blurred background with plants, looking slightly to the side.

The Long Game

The David Perell interview: How to resonate in the “age of engagement”

You no longer need an army of followers to stand out as a writer — “one great piece is all it takes,” says Perell.

Scatter plot with dark blue data points and black dashed elliptical contours centered on the origin, with axes labeled ξ (') horizontally and vertically—similar to plots used by astronomers in studies of the smallest galaxy ever discovered.

Starts With A Bang

Astronomers just found the smallest galaxy ever

With stars, gas, and dark matter, galaxies come in a great array of sizes. This new one, Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1, is the smallest by far.

Starts With A Bang

The Universe is not symmetric

The laws of physics obey certain symmetries and defy others. It’s theoretically tempting to add new ones, but reality doesn’t agree.

A colorful abstract painting is centered over a black-and-white collage of old newspaper clippings featuring portraits and articles.

Smart Skills

The creativity hack no one told you about: Read the obits

Reading obituaries can boost creativity by exposing you to distant ideas, fueling the associations that lead to unexpected breakthroughs.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Housekeeping

Given some of the comments that have shown up on the blog over the past few days, Waq al-waq has decided to disallow anonymous comments. While we encourage different views […]