If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act of a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

Steven Pressfield, The Art of War

March 04, 2018

your grandfather and your baby brother

March 04, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Treat everyone with the same level of respect you would give to your grandfather and the same level of patience you would have with your baby brother. -Renee Jones

March 03, 2018

bad weather

March 03, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Too often man handles life as he does the bad weather. He whiles away the time as he waits for it to stop. -Alfred Polgar

March 01, 2018

Too many people

March 01, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Too many people die with their music still in them. Oliver Wendell Holmes

February 28, 2018

Don't Be a Hack

February 28, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

A hack, Robert McKee says, is a writer who second-guesses his audience. When the hack sits down to work, he doesn’t ask himself what’s in his own heart. He asks what the market is looking for. The hack condescends to his audience. He thinks he’s superior to them.

The truth is, he’s scared to death of them or, more accurately, scared of being authentic in front of them, scared of writing what he really feels or believes, what he himself thinks is interesting. He’s afraid it won’t sell. So he tries to anticipate what the market (a telling word) wants, then gives it to them.

In other words, the hack writes hierarchically. He writes what he imagines will play well in the eyes of others. He does not ask himself, What do I myself want to write? What do I think is important? Instead he asks, What’s hot, what can I make a deal for?

The hack is like the politician who consults the polls before he takes a position. He’s a demagogue. He panders.

It can pay off, being a hack. Given the depraved state of American culture, a slick dude can make millions being a hack. But even if you succeed, you lose, because you’ve sold out your Muse, and your Muse is you, the best part of yourself, where your finest and only true work comes from.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

February 27, 2018

throw your heart

February 27, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow.

February 26, 2018

Articles of Interest - Feb 26

February 26, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

A chat with author and Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly about the technologies that will inevitably change our future Motley Fool

Social networks are broken—This man wants to fix them MIT Technology Review

Robot vs Human Testing Wired

Driverless cars can operate in California as early as April Recode

Scientists create optical lens that acts as 'artificial eye' based on the anatomy of human eyeball Harvard

Children struggle to hold pencils due to too much tech, doctors say The Guardian

***JOURNALISM

Local Reporting Is Dying. This Training Corps Wants to Bring It Back. Pacific Standard PS Mag

With in-article chat bots, BBC is experimenting with new ways to introduce readers to complex topics Nieman Lab

Journalism has a catch-22 problem with visuals Poynter

Journalism is a risky business Washington Post

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

After years of testing, The Wall Street Journal has built a paywall that bends to the individual reader Nieman Journalism Lab

***FAKE NEWS

How to Inoculate the Public Against Fake News Defense One

A viral fake about Sylvester Stallone highlights a major flaw in Facebook’s fact-checking tool Poynter

Why Can Everyone Spot Fake News But The Tech Companies? BuzzFeed

Strategies on checking for fake news Union-Tribune

Somebody in the world of fake science publishing has now invented a whole fake university covering 50 fictional city blocks in California Ottawa Citizen

Can we keep media literacy from becoming a partisan concept like fact checking? Harvard’s Nieman Lab

***BIG DATA & AI

Quantum computing is now in the equivalent of the days of vacuum tubes running calculations in room-sized computers—but reliability is on the horizon Economist

The best books for learning modern statistics (and they’re free) Quartz

The neural network designer "cannot know, once that network has been trained, exactly how it is doing what it does.. For artificial intelligence to thrive, it must explain itself.." Economist

Databricks (founded by the creators of Apache Spark) is now offering a premium Apache Spark service integrated with Microsoft Azure ZDnet

Wanted: Machine Learning experts who think less like a ML scientist and more like a business user, developing tools to analyze and manage ML power without having to think like an ML scientist Forbes

The xView Detection Challenge: the Pentagon is offering $100k in prizes to develop algorithms that can interpret high-resolution satellite images Wired

Evaluating the complex challenges inherent in machine learning and artificial intelligence and the level of human involvement required to take full advantage of Tech Target

***SOCIAL MEDIA

On Social Media, Lax Enforcement Lets Impostor Accounts Thrive New York Times

Russian meddling is only one challenge facing the social-media giant: Young Americans are using it less, costs are soaring and regulation looms Economist

There is no easy fix for Facebook’s reliability problem Monday Note

***MOBILE

What is Google Reply (and How It Works) Tom’s Guide

Apple Plans Giant High-End iPhone, Lower-Priced Model Bloomberg

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Sitting in on Remote Meetings? Working at a Standing Desk? Follow These Tips Wired

The Pros & Cons of Scripted vs Unscripted Video Video Strategist

***INTERNET

The Father Of The Internet Sees His Invention Reflected Back Through A 'Black Mirror' NPR

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Defeating Procrastination Becoming (my blog)

***GRAMMAR

The serious implications of poking fun at the grammar of people who speak and write English as a second language The Chronicle of Higher Education

‘What Is Your Position on Citation?’ The Chronicle of Higher Education

Syntax change: one of the mistakes made by doom-mongers who believe English itself is under threat The Chronicle of Higher Education

***LANGUAGE

Did humans speak through cave art? New paper links ancient drawings and language’s origins MIT

In the world of voice-recognition, not all accents are equal Economist

A Written Language Without an Alphabet Scholarly Kitchen

***LITERATURE

Petition calls for separating LGBT materials in Iowa library Washington Post

Aliens Would Probably Like It If You Gave them Flowers: A Geek’s Guide to Steven Pinker WIRED

How Do You Launch a New Generation of Native American Writers? BuzzFeed News

***GENDER

Judge gives grandparents custody of Ohio transgender teen CNN

The world’s largest professional organization for the advancement of technology is allegedly minimizing the work of female historians who—write about bias against women in technology Inside Higher Ed

Signs defending white privilege appear around Burlington campuses Burlington Free Press

'You Have Dark Skin And You Are Beautiful': The Long Fight Against Skin Bleaching NPR

How Girls and Women "Camouflage" Their Autism The Atlantic

45 music festivals pledge gender-equal lineups by 2022Tess Cagle— February 26Only 2 of the festivals on board are in the U.S. Daily Dot

Gender Gap at the Olympics Wall Street Journal

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

U.S. hate groups proliferate in Trump's first year, watchdog says Reuters

***FREE SPEECH

It's the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech Wired

Anti-Trump artwork by a professor at Polk State College, in Florida, was barred from a faculty-art exhibition for being “too controversial” The FIRE

California's IMDb Age Censorship Law Declared Unconstitutional Hollywood Reporter

***LEGAL ISSUES

John Oliver, HBO Beat Coal Executive's Defamation Lawsuit Hollywood Reporter

4 of the Most Influential Supreme Court Cases Being Decided in 2018 Study Breaks

Appeals Court Rules The Civil Rights Act Protects Gay Workers NPR

Lesbian Law Prof Sues Over Rejection as Foster Parent Law.com

***LEGAL ISSUES: COPYRIGHT

Judge rejects copyright claim over CG Characters in Blockbuster Movies, but claims for inducing patent infringement and violating trademarks will move forward Hollywood Reporter

The Big Push To Reform Music Copyright For The Digital Age Forbes

Disney Misused 'Star Wars,' 'Frozen' Copyrights, Says Judge Hollywood Reporter

***RELIGION

Why Are These Christian Non-Profits Telling the IRS They’re Churches? (opinion) Patheos

The Gospel according to Bob Dylan Boston Globe

Harvard University Christian group ‘forced out’ Bible study leader because she’s bisexual (College puts Group on ‘Probation) The Crimson

Protestantism might be good for the wallet, after all: An evangelical charity helps with a randomised controlled trial of religion Economist

Our Parent Who Art in Heaven The Chronicle of Higher Education

Citing partial lifting of LGBTQ hiring ban, Texas Baptist group to stop forwarding money to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Baptist News

Pope suggests it's better to be an atheist than a bad Christian CNN

***BILLY GRAHAM

Remembering Billy Graham, "America's Pastor" & Adviser to Presidents Biography

The media savvy of Billy Graham Washington Post

Billy Graham's Record on Race Was Both Ahead and Of His Time Bloomberg

Today’s evangelicals could learn a lot from Billy Graham (opinion) Washington Post

Why Billy Graham Was Determined to Globalize Evangelicalism The Atlantic

Billy Graham was consumed by grace Washington Post

Billy Graham may have been the last bipartisan evangelical leader Washington Post

The Making of Billy Graham: Evangelicalism and Anthropology in the 20th-Century United States Academia.edu

Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It Politico

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

In Donald Trump, Evangelicals Have Found Their President (opinion) New York Times

Evangelical Explains: We Evangelicals Are The Biggest Suckers in the US Splinter

***ART & DESIGN

Instagram is killing the way we experience art in museums Quartzy

A sumptuous TV tour of the history of art Economist

The Art of Chinese Propaganda Posters Atlas Obscura

How do the United States state flags look when data decides their designs? True Colors

***MUSIC

Is Music a Universal Language? YouTube

Public broadcaster music library closing, CD’s to be digitised, destroyed Radio Canada International

***FILM

'Darkest Hour' Loves Churchill, But Let's Hope It Tanks His Legacy Digg

***STUDENT MEDIA

Student journalist interviewed classmates as shooter walked Parkland school halls CNN

How accessible is Penn State’s campus for students with disabilities? The Daily Collegian

FIRE alerts students to due process threats using campus newspapers The FIRE

***JOBS

How to Make Your LinkedIn Page Less Boring LifeHacker

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

A student at a Kansas University complained that a psychology prof had tried to kiss her: The student newspaper reports she was required to sign a nondisclosure agreement The Bulletin

'New York Magazine': Do You Believe Anita Hill Now? NPR

How common is sexual misconduct in Hollywood? USA Today

Tackling Sexual Harassment On Campus Means Putting Students First (opinion) University Times

Survivors of sexual harassment and assault need more independent programs that give institutions and the public a chance to support them (opinion) New York Times

Sexual harassment pervades science: This scientist is talking to Congress about how to change that Stat News

***SOCIOLOGY

The Professor of Horrible Deeds: Fred Berlin has done decades of pioneering research on pedophilia — and outraged a lot of people along the way The Chronicle of Higher Education

***HEALTH

Good science keeps debunking the war on pasta and bread Vox

Making anaesthesia safer by tracking brain activity Economist

Single fathers are twice more likely to die early than single mothers or partnered fathers Quartz

The menace of lead poisoning: Paint laced with lead lingers in rich countries and is still being manufactured in poor ones Economist

Back Pain May Be The Result Of Bending Over At The Waist Instead Of The Hips NPR

What does the world die from? (data visualization) Our World in Data

***HEALTH & TECH

Google’s new AI algorithm predicts heart disease by looking at your eyes The Verge

DeepMind’s new project aims to prevent hospital deaths MIT Tech Review

***RELATIONSHIPS

Yep, people are using avocados to propose on Instagram NBC Today

***NEUROSCIENCE

Hidden Brain: A Study Of Airline Delays NPR

New neurons in the adult brain are involved in sensory learning ScienceDaily

***CRITICAL THINKING

Steven Pinker’s case for optimism“Enlightenment Now” explains why the doom-mongers are wrong Economist

***PHILOSOPHY

Four philosophers who realized they were completely wrong about things Big Think

***RESEARCH

Researchers have finally created a tool to spot duplicated images across thousands of papers Nature

In the near future, I also plan to set bug bounties, i.e. sums of money you can earn if you find errors in my published work The 100% CI

Publisher retracts “conceptual penis” hoax article Retraction Watch

Tool which clinical drug trials have missed deadlines for reporting their results BBC

A guidebook to measuring research Nature

***HIGHER ED

A list of colleges that “are committed to defend the #NeverAgain Movement (website created by undergraduate at the University of California at San Diego) Never Again Colleges

The Great Online School Scam LongReads

Who's Missing From America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates NPR

After 2016 Election, Campus Hate Crimes Seemed to Jump: Here’s What the Data Tell Us The Chronicle of Higher Education

How to help students avoid the remedial ed trap Hechinger Report

University of Akron pays more than $620,000 a year to two former presidents to teach Cleveland.com

College signs contract with Florida sheriff’s office to have instructors and staff members carry guns Click Orlando

In Times of Scandal, Conflicts With College Lawyers Multiply The Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Misguided Drive to Measure ‘Learning Outcomes’ New York Times

Why Is the Manhattan DA Looking at Newsweek’s Ties to a Christian University? Newsweek

No, a church isn't trying to sex traffic women on college campuses NewJersey.com

Jimmy Carter to give commencement speech at Liberty University The Hill

Louisiana College refused to hire coach because of his 'Jewish blood': Lawsuit Associated Press

What in the World Is Going On Between Olivet U. and Newsweek? The Chronicle of Higher Education

Wheaton College Wins 5-Year Religious Freedom Battle Against Birth Control Mandate Christian Post

***TEACHING

Inclusive Citation: How Diverse Are Your References? The Chronicle of Higher Ed

***STUDENT LIFE

Millennials Media Consumption Daily Infographic

Prestigious U.S. colleges won't reject students who protest guns Reuters

Judge dismisses New York Columbia University student's claims over rape reports Reuters

Student-run Christian group sues Georgia school saying its campus speech-zone rules are unconstitutional Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Screen All Teens For Depression, Pediatricians Urge NPR

***ACADEMIC LIFE

She Wrote a Farewell Letter to Colleagues. Then 80,000 People Read It. The Chronicle of Higher Education

February 24, 2018

resistance to change

February 24, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

There is no sin punished more implacably by nature than the sin of resistance to change. Anne Morrow Lindbergh

February 23, 2018

Learn by Doing

February 23, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Learn by doing. Not sure if you can break into the pharmaceutical industry? Spend six months interning at Pfizer making connections and see what happens. Curious whether marketing or product development is a better fit than what you currently do? If you work in a company where those functions exist, offer to help out for free. Whatever the situation, actions, not plan, generate lessons that help you test your hypotheses against reality. Actions help you discover where you want to go and how to get there.

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, The Startup of You

February 22, 2018

little steps

February 22, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

There is no giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps. -Peter A. Cohen

February 20, 2018

your future self

February 20, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Procrastination stems from a failure to “identify sufficiently with your future self” -Robert Hanks

February 19, 2018

Articles of Interest - Feb 19

February 19, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

Drones that dodge obstacles without guidance can pursue you like paparazzi MIT Technology Review

In the future we won’t edit genomes—we’ll just print out new ones MIT Tech Review

***BIG DATA & AI

Even a moth’s brain is smarter than an AI: a neural network that simulates the way moths recognize odors also shows how they learn so much faster than machines MIT Tech Review

Buzzwords Just Create Confusion about Data Science Dark Reading

The misuse, abuse and traps of “statistical significance” Christensen Institute

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Want the Perfect Instagram Photo? This Park Hires a Photographer for You Bloomberg

Facebook’s two-factor authentication system auto-posts replies on your profile The Verge

Snapchat founder says user complaints 'validate' redesign CNN

Why Facebook’s earliest efforts to kill off Snapchat completely backfired Recode

***GOOGLE

Carry Around Your Google Account's Backup Two-Step Verification Codes in Case Your Phone is Stolen Life Hacker

Tired of texting? Google tests robot to chat with friends for you The Guardian

Google is replacing Facebook’s traffic to publishers Recode

The ‘Stories’ format is coming to Google search next The Verge

What Is Google Really Up To With Chrome Ad Blocking? Popular Mechanics

***PERSONAL GROWTH

The Cult of Convenience Becoming (my blog)

The Tyranny of Convenience (opinion) New York Times

The ABCs of Fake Empathy: what it is, what it isn’t and how to cultivate it The Polymath Project

***JOURNALISM

Why ‘Dialogue Journalism’ Is Having a Moment PBS Media Shift

When it comes to press freedom, America is no longer a ‘beacon’ for the world Columbia Journalism Review

The Heartbreak and Frustration of Covering One Mass Shooting After Another New Yorker

How the non-disclosure agreement became a tool for powerful people to stymie journalists from informing the public Columbia Journalism Review

John Oliver: Is He a Journalist, Despite His Protests? Variety

Best practices for reporting through social media during a mass shooting Poynter

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Guide to Audience Revenue and Engagement of News Audiences Columbia Journalism Review

New York Times CEO: Print journalism has maybe another 10 years CNBC

How much U.S. newspapers charge for digital subscriptions American Press Institute

***FAKE NEWS

The most common hashtags tweeted by Russian trolls Quartz

Fake news is an existential crisis for social media Tech Crunch

***LITERATURE

In 'Freshwater,' A College Student Learns To Live With Separate Selves NPR

***GENDER

Education Department says it is no longer investigating transgender bathroom complaints BuzzFeed

Judge gives grandparents custody of Ohio transgender teen CNN

Male and female brain rhythms show differences Science Daily

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

‘Resist White Supremacy’: A sign. A farm. And the fury that followed Washington Post

NBC Insists On Saying 'Pyeongchang' Incorrectly Because 'It's Cleaner' Huffington Post

How Diverse Casting in Branded Videos Expands Your Audience Video Strategist

***FREE SPEECH

Provosts are generally confident of free speech rights at their own colleges and universities, but many are worried about the situation more broadly in higher education Inside Higher Ed

The 10 worst colleges for free speech: 2018 The FIRE

***LEGAL ISSUES

Law School Accreditor Proposes Easing Limits on Online Education Inside Higher Ed

Supreme Court Tackles Fourth Amendment Case Involving Cellphone Privacy Law.com

Beyoncé Songs Come to the Olympics. But Who Pays for the Rights? New York Times

Judge Rules News Publishers Violated Copyright by Embedding Tweets of Tom Brady Photo Hollywood Reporter

In-Line Linking May Be Copyright Infringement–Goldman v. Breitbart News Technology & Marketing Law Blog

***RELIGION

Author of “The Faith of Donald J. Trump” is challenged on Morning Joe MSNBC

Charlotte Mother Jailed For Baptism: Mother Reports To Jail WSOC-TV

***ART & DESIGN

A landmark 5Pointz case shows the legal reasons why graffiti is art Quartz

How restaurateur Mr Chow became the unlikely hero of the art world Dazed

What the 5Pointz ruling means for street artists The Conversation

***MUSIC

Classical Music Couples Throughout History NPR

A Town In Mexico Sees Guitar Sales Soar Thanks To The Movie 'Coco' NPR

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Bill Would Hold College Presidents Accountable for Sexual Abuse by Employees Chronicle of Higher Ed

In The Wake Of Rob Porter Allegations, Mormon Women Say Church Leaders Encouraged Them To Stay With Their Abusers BuzzFeed

The Moral Responsibility of Restaurant Critics in the Age of #MeToo The New Yorker

Bill Would Hold College Presidents Accountable for Sexual Abuse by Employees Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Call-In: Knowing Sexual Harassers NPR

Breaking the Silence: the #MeToo Moment in Scholarly Communication Scholarly Kitchen

***HEALTH

New malleable 'electronic skin' self-healable, recyclable University of Colorado Boulder

Google AI can scan your eyes to predict heart disease Engadget

***RELATIONSHIPS

No, opposites do not attract The Conversation

8 facts about love and marriage in America Pew Research Center

How to avoid hugs (video)

***GOOD NEWS

A single dad walked 11 miles to work every day—until his co-workers found out CNN

How Two Police Drones Saved a Woman's Life The Atlantic

50 Years Later, Mister Rogers Remains Our Favorite Neighbor NPR

***PSYCHOLOGY

What Color Is a Tennis Ball? The Atlantic

The Psychology Behind Successful Apps (opinion) Media Post

***PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy Relies on Those Double Majors The Splintered Mind

A Celebrity Philosopher Explains the Populist Insurgency New Yorker

***ETHICS

Tech’s Ethical ‘Dark Side’: Harvard, Stanford and Others Want to Address It New York Times

***RESEARCH

Meet the ‘data thugs’ out to expose shoddy and questionable research Science Mag

***HIGHER ED

How Russian Bots Spread Fear at University in the U.S. Inside Higher Ed

Students who attend for-profit colleges are outperformed on earnings and employment by other students in nearly every category Brookings

In a fast-changing world, nearly everything is unsettled in higher education Inside Higher Ed

What students know that experts don't: School is all about signaling, not skill-building LA Times

Getting from ‘Hello’ to ‘I Do’ on a Christian College Campus Christianity Today

Female students at Christian colleges more likely to experience gender discrimination Christianity Today

***TEACHING

Harnessing the Power of the Developing Brain Chronicle of Higher Ed

Hybrid learning techniques in both online and traditional classes can be better used (opinion) Hechinger Report

Online Courses Are Harming the Students Who Need the Most help New York Times

Future economy demands workers who can learn online The Hill

The lack of meaningful pedagogical training during graduate school Chronicle of Higher Ed

Since the mid-1970s, college students have become increasingly less likely to major in education Market Watch

***STUDENT MEDIA

College PR offices fight against student media to manipulate narrative Student Press Law Center

Students hassled by transit authority and local cops for filming on the sidewalk of a public bus station

Student reporter interviews classmates during shooting Fort Worth Star-Telegram

***STUDENT LIFE

The 7 Things Students Think About When Choosing a College Chronicle of Higher Ed

Millennials Are Obsessed With Pets Media Post

College roommates underestimate each other's distress, new psychology research shows Science Daily

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Why I Collapsed on the Job: Academics are silent workaholics—so free to work whenever we want that many of us end up working all the time Chronicle of Higher Ed

Michigan State University Faculty Senate passes no confidence vote in Board of Trustees Michigan Radio

History in the Face of Catastrophe: After my son died, how could I know anything for certain? Chronicle of Higher Ed

February 19, 2018

The Cult of Convenience

February 19, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Everyone, or nearly everyone, is on Facebook: It is the most convenient way to keep track of your friends and family, who in theory should represent what is unique about you and your life. Yet Facebook seems to make us all the same. Its format and conventions strip us of all but the most superficial expressions of individuality, such as which particular photo of a beach or mountain range we select as our background image.

I do not want to deny that making things easier can serve us in important ways, giving us many choices (of restaurants, taxi services, open-source encyclopedias) where we used to have only a few or none. But being a person is only partly about having and exercising choices. It is also about how we face up to situations that are thrust upon us, about overcoming worthy challenges and finishing difficult tasks — the struggles that help make us who we are. What happens to human experience when so many obstacles and impediments and requirements and preparations have been removed?

Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey. But climbing a mountain is different from taking the tram to the top, even if you end up at the same place. We are becoming people who care mainly or only about outcomes. We are at risk of making most of our life experiences a series of trolley rides.

Tim Wu writing in The New York Times

February 15, 2018

No one is where they are

February 15, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

"Sometimes I walk down the street, and I’m the only person not plugged in…No one is where they are. They’re talking to someone miles away. I miss them."