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On the heels of last week’s timeless commencement addresses by icons like David Foster Wallace , Ellen DeGeneres , and Ray Bradbury comes this fantastic speech by Neil Gaiman , addressing the 2012 graduating class of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. (Which happens to be the technical birthplace of Brain Pickings as we know it today — it’s there that I took my first web design night class in early 1800s and transformed what began as a tiny email newsletter into a tiny website.) Gaiman himself never graduated from college — in fact, he never even enrolled in college — yet he earned his place in literary culture as one of the most celebrated and prolific writers working today. Here, he imparts several pieces of life-wisdom on young people beginning a career in the arts, summarized below. Say “no” to projects that take you further from rather than closer to your own creative goals, however flattering or lucrative.
Advice on Living the Creative Life from Neil Gaiman
Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done
Lifehacker is making some changes to its comment system that will require you to log in with a Facebook, Google, or Twitter account. You must convert your account to one of these services in order to continue using your account. Converting your account on Lifehacker will do so on all Gawker Media Sites.
Starting something new is scary. Putting yourself in the path of criticism can be painful. Video blogger extraordinaire Ze Frank is back, thanks to a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign , and he's tackling your fears of beginning and dishing inspiration like Baz Luhrmann on GTD-flavored Four Loko. Hooray!
An Invocation for Beginnings: Your Pencils Are Sharp Enough
What You Want to Do Is Who You Are
On modern social networks, the question of the moment is What are you doing? (or perhaps more provocatively, What's on your mind? ). To me, a more interesting question is, What do you want to do? . The desire to do anything beyond eat, find warmth, sleep, and mate is what makes us human.
What You'll Wish You'd Known
When I said I was speaking at a high school, my friends were curious. What will you say to high school students? So I asked them, what do you wish someone had told you in high school? Their answers were remarkably similar.
A magnificent home of absolute class and style rests in a quaint little neighborhood of Soma, San Francisco. The residence takes up 5,000 sqf and creates a spacious enviornment with its multiple levels. The property was transformed from a warehouse structure by its original owner with conjunction of the Martin Building Company . It’s radiant heated hardwood floors were saved from a Los Angeles airplane hanger. The house obtained its unique gandeur as it paid devotion to the original hangar with nearly 30 foot exposed timber and white-washed ceilings. This design’s roof line is embellished with multiple skylights consisting of a 16 x 20 foot retractable center skylight almost bringing in the outside environment.
Soma Warehouse Loft | GBlog
Philips Design Probes is a dedicated ‘far-future’ research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business. The Design Probes program was established to generate insights and explore far-future lifestyle scenarios based on rigorous research in a wide range of areas. Probes projects are intended to understand future socio-cultural and technological shifts with a view to developing nearer-term scenarios. These scenario explorations are often carried out in collaboration with experts and thought leaders in different fields, culminating in a ‘provocation’ designed to spark discussion and debate around new ideas and lifestyle concepts.
Design Probes
Collector of Skills
By FBI statistics, in 2009 there were 1,318,398 violent crimes reported in the US. Of course, there are crimes that never get reported, so this is the best number we have to go on. In a population of just over 307 million, that's, statistically, better than a 1 in 307 chance of being involved in such an incident. Now, obviously, there are high risk factors that many of us try to avoid, such as drug use, organized crime, and "dangerous" neighborhoods, but the fact remains that, with all the improvements we have made as a species, some of our population decide they will use whatever methods they deem necessary to gain their ends.
Graffiti Research Lab » LED Throwies
LED Throwies are an inexpensive way to add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. A Throwie consists of a lithium battery, a 10mm diffused LED and a rare-earth magnet taped together. Throw it up high and in quantity to impress your friends and city officials.You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do? If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to our RSS feed .
50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind
Gateways To Geekery | The A.V. Club
Steely Dan’s sophisticated façade and epic mean streak seem engineered to keep the outsiders out and the insiders way in. Don’t let that stop you. His career spans more than three decades, four bands, numerous collaborations, and even film scores. Where to begin when there’s so much to choose from?Current/To Read
Me (Not That You Really Care)