Back to the bibliography for my book. Today: David Galenson, “Old Masters and Young Geniuses.”
Folks, this is an important book. Notice I did not say “riveting” or “thrilling” or “entertaining”. It’s short and academic, not for the beach. But let me say it again: It’s important.
Galenson has looked into the life cycles of creative types. [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘failure’
November 26, 2008
Peaking early or climbing slowly
October 9, 2008
A bit more on Amy Tan
Well, I’m still researching Amy Tan–and I’m still being deliberately coy about exactly which aspect of her life will make it into my book–and I keep coming across all these other interesting things she has said.
From the same interview as in the previous post, here she is talking about success and failure, making them sound [...]
September 23, 2008
Churchill on well-disguised impostors
My book is about Kipling’s notion that success and failure, or triumph and disaster, can be impostors. That does not mean, of course, that all triumphs and all disasters are always impostors. But to say that wittily, we really need ole Winston.
Churchill, as it happens, lived a life that in many ways illustrates Kipling’s impostors, [...]
September 1, 2008
The suffering of Frida Kahlo
I popped into the Frida Kahlo exhibition currently at the San Francisco MOMA. Mainly, to see her piercing paintings–and boy, do they pierce–but also, at least in part, as research for my book.
A friend of ours, Erika Lessey Chen, had suggested Kahlo to me a year ago as a possible life-story to look into. I [...]
August 22, 2008
Which Bhagavad Gita?
“With no desire for success, no anxiety about failure, indifferent to results, he burns up his actions in the fire of wisdom. Surrendering all thoughts of outcome, unperturbed, self-reliant, he does nothing at all, even when fully engaged in actions.
There is nothing that he expects, nothing that he fears. Serene, free from possessions, untainted, acting [...]
August 11, 2008
The Narcissism of John Edwards: Impostor Success or Failure?
In my first preview of one of Kipling’s two impostors, triumph, I casually nodded to hubris as the most obvious mechanism that turns success into disaster, then went on to give another example that I thought was a bit subtler.
And now John Edwards forces me to come back to hubris. In case, you’ve been behind [...]
August 7, 2008
Kudos to other Hannibal lovers and thinkers
I’ve always noticed that, although Hannibal is ever so slightly less of a household name than, say, Alexander or Caesar (or should that be because, rather than although?), he seems to have the more passionate, sophisticated and thoughtful following.
Read, for instance, 100falcons on the subjects of Hannibal’s most ingenious trick, his famous boyhood vow to [...]
July 26, 2008
Impostor Failure, Part III: Lincoln, Beatles, Disney … everybody!
And we haven’t even got to Hannibal, Fabius and Scipio yet!
Anyway, watch this, courtesy (with thanks) of Kate:
July 24, 2008
Impostor Failure, Part II: J.K. Rowling
In my post on Steve Jobs, I suggested that his biggest failure in life turned out–certainly in his own opinion–to be a liberating event that made possible his subsequent success. In other words, his failure was an impostor, just as Rudyard Kipling would say. In this post, I want to suggest the exact same thing, [...]
July 22, 2008
Impostor Disaster, part I: Steve Jobs
Back to the book: Remember, the whole book is a long story woven around Rudyard Kipling’s poetic insight that triumph and disaster are impostors. I want to lead up to the main character, Hannibal, with a few other examples, and today Steve Jobs comes to mind. I saw him on a stage last month, launching [...]
