“Life is a continual process of arrival into who we are.”
– Maria Popova
Maria Popova (@brainpicker) has written for amazing outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times, but I find her most amazing project to be BrainPickings.org.
Founded in 2006 as a weekly email to seven friends, BrainPickings now gets more than 5 million readers per month (!). I read very few blogs regularly, but BrainPickings is one of the few that makes the cut. It’s a treasure trove.
Maria is massively successful, and her output is staggering. None of it’s accidental, and she’s great at teaching what she’s learned.
This episode answers the top-10 most popular questions you all had for Maria, including:
- The single attribute that leads to greatness in any given field
- Required reading and habits for anyone in public office
- How Henry David Thoreau was the first to talk about the dangers of sitting
- Why we must stop referring to our work as “content”
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”.
Want to hear more from Maria Popova? — Listen to our conversation in which we discuss writing, workflow, and workarounds (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What blogs do you consider a must-read every week? What makes those sites worth your time? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Enjoy!
Selected Links from the Episode
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
- Working Days by John Steinbeck
- The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Journal of Henry David Thoreau by Henry David Thoreau
- Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
- A Rap on Race by James Baldwin
- On Science, Necessity and the Love of God by Simone Weil
- The Republic by Plato
- On the Move by Oliver Sacks
Mentioned from Brain Pickings
- Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on Writing
- Sontag on Writing
- Dan Gilbert on the Present vs. Future Self
- Van Gogh’s letters to his brother
- Desert Solitaire
- Gathering Moss
- Thoreau’s Journal
- A Rap on Race
- Simone Weil
- Oliver Sacks’s Memoir
Show Notes
- What advice would you give to someone just starting a blog? [4:07]
- You have probably read all the wisdom shared on Brain Pickings. Has this helped you become who you want to be? If not, what is stopping you? [8:45]
- What is the most significant characteristic that distinguishes people who have accomplished greatness in any given field? [11:43]
- How do you decide what to read? What makes something not worth reading? [16:00]
- What book have you read multiple times? [19:23]
- If you could guarantee that every public official or leader read one book and engaged in one habit, what would those be? [24:38]
- How do you turn down invitations that don’t interest you? How do you avoid losing time in your day? [26:05]