How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? by Jean Twenge “The widely cited statistic that one in three women ages 35 to 39 will not be pregnant after a year of trying, for instance, is based on an article published in 2004 in the journal Human Reproduction. Rarely mentioned is the source of the data: French birth records from 1670 to 1830.”
You Listen to This Many Every Day on The Daily Beast, “My job is to be a professional version of the outside world—a listener who is not attached to any of it, who doesn’t know the story of how it was written, who doesn’t know how it works, who doesn’t know why this is important to you.”
Rethink the Way You Live on Design for Mankind, “What is design’s place in my life? Where is the line between celebrating simple, beautiful pleasures and promoting an excessive, consumer-driven lifestyle? How can I encourage readers – and myself – to live a life filled with more authenticity than stuff?”
Watched: CreativeMornings with Seth Godin, “This is really bad news for people insist on being picked. Because you’re not going to get picked… it’s over. And it’s being replaced by the awesome, scary responsibility of picking yourself. Of saying, “I am my own client.” And this is the best work that I could get the person who does the work for me to do. Here it is. I made this. What do you think?” “People that are doing work that matters aren’t doing work that’s popular. They’re just doing work that changes some people.” “It is never been easier for you to figure out who your audience is, who you’re going to change, and what work you’re gonna do that’s gonna matter.”
How to be sharp, eloquent + witty — on command! (Highly-classified copywriting secrets, inside…) by Alexandra Franzen, “I love creating scripts + frameworks for myself — and for you — because they serve as “training wheels” for witty, persuasive self-expression.”
Trail on In Over Your Head, a blog by Julien Smith, “and thought “There is no blog so good that it can gather this many emails so fast. No blog is even half as interesting as a real fucking thing that you are actually making. Something you invent. Nothing.””
Twelve Habits of Happy, Healthy People Who Don’t Give a Shit About Your Inner Peace on the I Am Begging My Mother Not to Read This Blog, “Do what you want. Be your damn self. Don’t be a terrible person. Be nice to others. Be supportive of your friends and allow yourself to give them the benefit of the doubt when they want to try something new, like rescuing shelter dogs, or making performance art in the nude, or dating terrible people. They’re your friends and you love them, and if they suck, stop being their friend. Show up for work. Pay your bills. Find some fucking purpose in your life, and figure out a way to share that purpose with others in a way that isn’t sanctimonious and doesn’t involve a picture of a woman laughing at an empty beach. Smile because something makes you smile. Laugh because you’ve surrounded yourself by people who make you laugh, and they’re funny fucking people, and you’re happy to be with them. Dance because you’re drunk at a big dance party with your friends and Michael Jackson is playing, not because ‘no one is watching.’ Everyone is watching. We’re at a fucking party. That’s how parties work. Do whatever the fuck you want.”
Self-Centered by Rachel W. Cole, “Self-centered women are powered sustainably from a renewable source, rather than from the validation, approval, and attention of outside and temporary sources.”
Snack Shaming: Why Don’t Advertisers Want Women to Eat? on Dame Magazine, “That’s really the message, isn’t it? That we should feel bad about eating? Maybe I’m missing something, but that seems like a weird position to take when you’re selling food.”
A week’s worth of my reading in one handy blog post—What I Read This Week: http://t.co/SOCHnvbNBJ (What’d YOU read this week?)