The problem I have with telling people that they need to go out and experience heartbreak and stuff before they can be a good artist is that I don’t know if we should be encouraging people to actively seek out negative life experiences for the sake of having a broader outlook on the human experience (or whatever bullshit terminology is being used these days).

That’s actually a really concerning mentality. Just try to live outside your head a little and do stuff, that’s all.

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.)