Reading through mathematical proofs sometimes feels like trying to understand gibberish while simultaneously trying to unravel where the spontaneous leaps of intuition came from.

Why do children’s book characters always have terrible passwords that can easily be guessed? Why is this a common plot device? Can we please start modeling proper digital literacy? Do we really want to be teaching kids that it’s okay to use the name of a family member or crush as your password?

Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders is a good one I read pretty recently. It’s about using fiction both as an escape from and as a commentary on reality, and it has a ton of really interesting ideas about worldbuilding and what kind of characters are interesting and also about emotional and less technical aspects of writing. I’d say it’s definitely worth a read. Also, it has really good writing exercises.

I don’t. I ask my friends if I can steal their ideas instead. If we’ve been friends long enough, I’ve probably done it to you.

(This is only partially a joke.)

There are 3 main categories of books about creativity, in my opinion:

1. Self-help books (which are, in my opinion, terribly useless, though they sometimes include a few interesting ideas).

2. Books written by researchers (which tend to make more objective claims and which I personally find more interesting).

3. Books written by journalists, which tend to be either/or.