The Marginalian
The Marginalian

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The Psychology of What Makes a Great Story
The Psychology of What Makes a Great Story

“The great writer’s gift to a reader is to make him a better writer.”

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Psychologist Barry Schwartz on What Motivates Us to Work, Why Incentives Fail, and How Our Ideas About Human Nature Shape Who We Become
Psychologist Barry Schwartz on What Motivates Us to Work, Why Incentives Fail, and How Our Ideas About Human Nature Shape Who We Become

“Human nature is to a significant degree the product of human design.”

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The Genes of the Soul: Amin Maalouf on Belonging, Conflict, and How We Inhabit Our Identity
The Genes of the Soul: Amin Maalouf on Belonging, Conflict, and How We Inhabit Our Identity

“A person’s identity… is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound.”

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Reinventing the Secular Sermon: Remarkable Commencement Addresses by Nora Ephron, David Foster Wallace, Ira Glass, and More
Reinventing the Secular Sermon: Remarkable Commencement Addresses by Nora Ephron, David Foster Wallace, Ira Glass, and More

How to live life “on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.”

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Madeleine L’Engle on Creativity, Hope, Getting Unstuck, and How Studying Science Enriches Art
Madeleine L’Engle on Creativity, Hope, Getting Unstuck, and How Studying Science Enriches Art

“Terrible things happen. And those are the things that we learn from… The amazing thing is that despite all… the human spirit still manages to survive, to stay strong.”

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Trailblazing Astronomer Vera Rubin on Obsessiveness, Minimizing Obstacles, and How the Thrill of Accidental Discovery Redeems the Terror of Uncertainty
Trailblazing Astronomer Vera Rubin on Obsessiveness, Minimizing Obstacles, and How the Thrill of Accidental Discovery Redeems the Terror of Uncertainty

Why all creative endeavor is a matter of “getting hung up on little interesting things.”

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Why Some People Are Left-Handed
Why Some People Are Left-Handed

An evolutionary parable of how the contradictory forces of competition and cooperation shaped human destiny.

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The Beauty of Uncertainty: How Heisenberg Invented Quantum Mechanics, Told in Jazz
The Beauty of Uncertainty: How Heisenberg Invented Quantum Mechanics, Told in Jazz

Quantum mechanics and the combinatorial nature of creativity, set to song.

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Mozart on Creativity and the Ideation Process
Mozart on Creativity and the Ideation Process

“It is quite natural that people who really have something particular about them should be different from each other on the outside as well as on the inside.”

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Ursula K. Le Guin on Where Ideas Come From, the “Secret” of Great Writing, and the Trap of Marketing Your Work
Ursula K. Le Guin on Where Ideas Come From, the “Secret” of Great Writing, and the Trap of Marketing Your Work

“All makers must leave room for the acts of the spirit. But they have to work hard and carefully, and wait patiently, to deserve them.”

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