As a child in London, George Benjamin exhibited extraordinary musical gifts. As Rebecca Mead writes in The New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/how-the-composer-george-benjamin-finally-found-his-voice] : > Whereas other inventive children might ask to be allowed to make up a story before bedtime, [Benjamin] begged to be permitted

> The singular secret to finishing your book is putting your butt in a chair and writing…Nothing else matters. > —Mark Teppo, Finish Your Novel! I know that, Mark. Come on. I’m a professional. What fundamental fact of writing life could be more obvious? To have written, one

We’re off on vacation for a week, so just a brief insight for you this afternoon. Then you can go back to your high-end haircuts and green tea matcha lattes [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/nyregion/how-ronny-chieng-comedian-and-actor-spends-his-sundays.html] . (No week is complete without the New York Times

> “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may

If you’re a regular Maven Game reader—have you received your official pin yet?—you’ll know that I don’t hold much truck with writing advice from other writers. (Why anyone would “hold truck” with anyone else is anyone’s guess—and I wouldn’t hold truck with

Let’s get the spoiler alert out of the way. You know that visual attention experiment? The one where you’re told to count the number of times the people in the white shirts pass a basketball back and forth? You almost certainly do, if you’re a typical Maven

Hello, friends. You’re still here. I’m still here. That’s something. Let’s celebrate the little victories. > Alec Baldwin: You never wanted to do a play? > Jerry Seinfeld: Nah. I did a play. Why should I wait for someone else to talk? > —Comedians in Cars

Remember chain letters? Who knows? Maybe you still get one now and then. Personally, I haven’t seen one in the wild for years. When I realized this yesterday, it struck me as odd. I got a little wave of nostalgia, like, “Hey, remember when Bill Gates was going to

D’ya like writing? Great. D’ya like desks, too? Yeah, I figured. Behold: Abraham Roentgen’s Writing Desk [https://youtu.be/vC5Hqk7wl7U]. Prepare yourself for two hypnotic minutes of a curator methodically revealing all the mechanical surprises tucked into one elegant piece of wooden furniture: unfolding inkwell, pop-up reading

I’m at World Domination Summit [https://worlddominationsummit.com/] in Portland this weekend. (My visit to the City of Roses is especially poignant having just finished watching the final season of Portlandia. Goodbye, Fred and Carrie!) Chris Guillebeau [https://chrisguillebeau.com/] (author of The $100 Startup, Side Hustle, and The