Slow thoughts

My dad’s PhD dissertation chronicle’s the life long struggle of an entrepreneur hell bent on making a dent in the universe. It’s a memoir masquerading as a thesis. It’s very inspriring and I’m happy I finally got around to reading it.

Sara García Alonso is a research scientist at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, and a class of ’22 reserve in the European Astronaut Corps.

A city is swinging when the people living in it feel that they’re making it what it is.

It’s fascinating how books aren’t mere repositories of information. That the order in which you encounter them actually dictates how your understanding evolves.

I’ve come to allow “Chet” entry to my most private quarters.

Talking shop is fine, but integrating the wider world into your shop-talk is even better.

Swedish novelists feel bad about life. Meanwhile the rest of the population seem to be doing quite alright.

Completism comes in many shapes and forms. It doesn’t necessarily have to manifest in a physical collection, but can also translate into a more generalised ambition to ‘take it all the way’.

We’re all copycats. Trying too hard to be unique will most likely just cause stagnation.

Steve Jobs famously said that “real artists ship”, but Ulf Lundell was perhaps even more profound in stating that “a cancelled concert is also a concert.”

The gospel of Jesus Christ was an exclusively male affair, but there are at least three female takes on Steve.

Representational aesthetics is all about what stories we’re trying to tell about ourselves.

Student revolts and stylistic standoffs with the bourgeoisie; who would have thought that the old lady had such a colourful past!

How do you teach entrepreneurship? I seriously doubt that it’s possible, the patterns are too irregular to be codified.

It’s been a good book year.