March 23, 2025 - #621 - read online - Free Version

Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter of timeless ideas and insights you can use.

Tiny Thoughts

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Work becomes great when curiosity drives it beyond obligation.

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The best essays begin with curiosity, not certainty; they're a journey of discovery for both writer and reader.

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When we lack real problems, we create imaginary ones; when we lack meaningful work, we perfect the unimportant.

Insights

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Oscar Wilde with his characteristic paradoxical wisdom:

“Saints always have a past and sinners always have a future.”

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Peter Cundill on the power of perspective:

“I think it may be easier to see solutions if you can distinguish between context and content. If you can place a problem within the framework of the larger universe its dimensions are put into perspective and automatically diminished.”

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Jeanette Winterson on art's power to bypass our defenses

“Most of us spend a lot of time censoring everything that we see and hear. Does it fit with our world picture? And if it doesn’t, how can we shut it out, how can we ignore it, how can we challenge it? We are continually threatened in life, it’s true. But once you are alone with a book, and it’s also true with a picture or with music, all those defenses drop and you can enter into a quite different space where you will learn to think differently about yourself.”

The Knowledge Project

Forget the spark—there’s a better way to love.

In this vulnerable conversation, I explore the uncomfortable truth about dating and relationships with behavioral scientist Logan Ury, revealing surprising insights about attraction, communication, and why true intimacy has less to do with finding perfection than embracing your deepest insecurities.

+ Listen and Learn on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

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Thanks for reading,

— Shane Parrish
Author of Clear Thinking

P.S. The world's biggest paper airplane.

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