Greetings,
Today’s newsletter contains some thoughts and reflections on writing and a very recent trip to Yale U.
Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk.
—John Steinbeck
✏️ Reflections on a trip to Yale
Today I returned from a 3-day trip to New Haven, where I was presenting at a conference on creativity. The conference was quite nice, and warrants its own newsletter post, but many of the enduring memories from the trip will be from my wanderings of Yale University.
When I lived in Bordeaux I worked with a Frenchman who went to Yale for a year during his PhD. He would often wear Yale attire to work, accompanied with cowboy boots, which I found quite amusing and which made him the target of many jokes by our colleagues. But having visited Yale myself, I understand why he fell in love with the place. The campus is beautiful. There is an appreciation for legacy and history and the pursuit of excellence. It is a special university, and I imagine many brilliant minds were formed there.
I stopped briefly at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (pictured above). As many of my long-time readers know, I am a lover of books, and naturally enjoyed exploring its wares. Libraries like this remind me of the importance of the physical world, and the eternal nature of the written word.
Writing is more than just an instrumental task — it is our way of leaving a fragment of ourselves with the world on our way out.
I am never shocked at how small the world is; I am only shocked by how infrequently people explore it.
Some guy at LaGuardia Airport
💡 Food for Thought
Be strict with yourself and tolerant of others. Your standards are for you.
Ryan Holiday
🔗 Sunday Best
Great Minds - Introduction to the Problems and Scope of Philosophy
By the late Michael Sugrue
If you know you know.
Creativity Research in Medicine and Nursing: A Scoping Review
Citation: Thabane A, Saleh S, Pallapothu S, McKechnie T, Staibano P, et al. (2025) Creativity research in medicine and nursing: A scoping review. PLOS ONE 20(1): e0317209.
Peer-reviewed scientific research on creativity in medicine, mostly conducted in the nursing profession, is sparse and performed on variable methodological grounds. Further scientific research on the topic, as well as the development of medicine-specific definitions and measurement tools, is required to uncover the utility of creativity in the medical domain.
Transvaluation of All Values: Play Not Work
Allow me to put you on to another excellent philosopher who is active on YouTube.
This lecture explores the concept of work and play arguing Play is a better way to think about how we approach our jobs. Delivered by Wesley Cecil PhD. at Peninsula College.
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
—Albert Einstein
See you next week!
AT