Friday Links

From the Web

How to Learn Without Memorizing – My new article for Think Simple Now has had a lot of attention through Twitter.

From the Archives

Don’t Burn Your Ships – The ship-burning attitude is stupid. While it may increase your motivation to continue, it reduces your motivation to get started. And, as Woody Allen said, “half of life is just showing up.”

From the Shelf

Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity – Hugh McLeod’s book on creativity. Hugh is the writer of the successful blog, Gaping Void, and cartoonist on business cards. This book came at a great time for me as I’m thinking over many of my own questions relating to career, business and struggling to be creative in a world that rewards and punishes us so much for it.

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters – A nice introduction to the topic of evolutionary psychology. The authors explore startling (and very often politically incorrect questions) such as why attractive men might make bad husbands, how a monogamous society benefits more men than women and why suicidal terrorists are often Islamic. Some of their more peculiar findings seemed to be stretching the facts, but as a whole it was a worthwhile read.