This Is A Kind Of Necessary Selfishness To unblock himself while writing East of Eden, John Steinbeck began writing letters to his friend Pascal Covici. After the first one on January 29, 1951, there was a letter for every working day until Steinbeck finished the first draft. “This book will be the most difficult of all […]| Billy Oppenheimer
Something Not To Be Sought Directly, But As An Indirect Reward In a journal he kept throughout the summer of 1962, the psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote, “by contrast with the direct attack or the direct search for happiness—happiness is an epiphenomenon.” From the Greek prefix epi- (meaning ”upon,” or “in addition to”) and the Greek word phainomenon (meaning “that which […] The post SIX at 6: Epiphenomena, Working With Enthusiasm, The Real Project, Man’s Search For ...| Billy Oppenheimer
We Don’t Evaluate Things Objectively. We Evaluate Things Relatively. Many people feel poorer, less productive, and generally worse off than they really are. Many people are more stressed than they really need to be. And many people are less happy than they really should be. “The problem,” Dr. Laurie Santos (a professor of psychology and cognitive […] The post SIX at 6: Relative Evaluations, Relative Deprivation, A Dreaded Question, A Ridiculous Comparison, What Everyone Starts With, ...| Billy Oppenheimer
Swing Your Swing Once, after watching a bunch of long, complicated videos on the technically perfect golf swing, I stumbled on a 98-second video of Scottie Scheffler, the number one ranked golfer in the world, detailing his swing. In the short, simple video, Scheffler says, “If you’ve seen my swing before, it’s not very orthodox.” His […]| Billy Oppenheimer
On Account of Relationships On December 15, 2022, I spoke to George Raveling on the phone for the first time. This past Tuesday, when I heard the sad news of George’s passing at the age of 88, I thought about that call and could only remember two things about it. First, he began by telling me […] The post SIX at 6: On Account of Relationships, King’s Muse, Sondheim’s Laugh, Lewis’s Eagerness, Guinzburg’s Belief, and Adam’s Lonely Paradise appeared first on Billy Oppenheimer. Th...| Billy Oppenheimer
You’ve Gotta Find It Within Yourself To Say… The entrepreneur Mark Cuban is frequently approached by people who are stuck. “They’re stuck in a job they don’t like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They’re stuck on a team they don’t like,” he explained. “I just tell them, ‘Be great.’” “The reality of […]| Billy Oppenheimer
Where’s Your Follow-Up? In the 1970s, the comedian Chris Rock grew up in a Brooklyn neighborhood surrounded by gangs, violence, and crime. He was asked how he avoided falling in with a bad crowd—”how did you avoid the trapping of gangs and gang activity?” “I don’t think it’s about ‘avoiding,’” Rock said. “It’s about, where’s your […] The post SIX at 6: The Follow-Up, Staying With It, A Striking Lack of Talent, A Certain Kind of Personality, A Proud Failure, and Th...| Billy Oppenheimer
Things Don’t Have Signs On Them That Say, “This Is A Big Thing” At sixteen, Mike Nichols’s girlfriend’s parents gave him tickets to a Broadway play that turned out to redirect the course of his life. In college, a chance interaction with a cafeteria busboy led to him attending weekly improv workshops, where he soaked […] The post SIX at 6: The Deceptive Nature of Things, An Unusual Asset, What You Don’t See, What’s Impossible To Know, The Things That Change Your Life, and Nonc...| Billy Oppenheimer
The Third Chair Years after he’d last been there, Henrik Karlsson stopped by the public library where he used to spend countless hours alone, struggling to write, wrestling with the seemingly impossible dream of becoming a writer. Approaching the chair he used to sit in, Karlsson writes, “The sensation that he, my previous self, was still […]| Billy Oppenheimer
It’s A Series Of Really Simple Instructions In 1983, Apple introduced the Lisa, the first personal computer with a graphical user interface, marking the moment when computers began to look and feel the way we think of them today: a desktop of icons, files, and windows, navigated with a mouse or trackpad. This innovation transformed […] The post SIX at 6: The Reality of What Appears Magical, Solving The Problem Too Fast, How Dylan’s Songs Got Here, Glacial Processes, Whispering, and The ...| Billy Oppenheimer
Excellence Is A Qualitative Phenomenon In the early 1980’s, the sociologist Daniel Chambliss spent five years studying swimmers at every level of ability. He visited learn-to-swim programs, coached a regional swim team, and traveled with the U.S. Olympic Team. He was interested in what separated the good from the great—the habits, training regimens, mindsets, physical […]| Billy Oppenheimer
A Certain Kind of Personality At some point in grade school, Greta Gerwig began to think that she might want to be a movie director. But as she became aware of a certain mythology associated with directors—rebellious, forceful personalities, singularly obsessed with movies from an early age—Gerwig began to doubt whether she had the personality. […]| Billy Oppenheimer
Time On The Job In the 1980s, the sociologist Robert N. Bellah introduced the concept of three distinct “work orientations”—three distinct ways people relate to their work: as a Job (work as a means to pay the bills), a Career (work as a path to advancement, achievement, and status), or a Calling (work as a […]| Billy Oppenheimer