Maria Popova by Kelton Reid

Reading an interview with Maria Popova by Kelton Reid.

Kelton says:

Ms. Popova is a wellspring of knowledge and she daily cross-pollinates a wide variety of disciplines, all in the spirit of creativity and discovery. She has contributed to Wired, The Atlantic, is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, and was named to Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business (among many other accolades).

One of Fast Company's 100 most creative people! Now I don't feel so bad that her creativity, writing and ability to connect what she knows is so prodigious.




Practically (pathetically?) every waking moment, with the exception of the time I spend writing and a couple of hours in the evening allotted for some semblance of a personal life. I do most of my long-form reading at the gym (pen and Post-Its and all), skim the news while eating (a questionable health habit, no doubt), and listen to philosophy, science, or design podcasts while commuting on my bike (hazardous and probably illegal). Facetiousness aside, however, I have no complaints – as the great Annie Dillard put it, “a life spent reading – that is a good life.”

I love Brain Pickings and shall certainly garner as much advice as possible from interviews with Maria.

Before you begin to write, do you have any pre-game rituals or practices?

Given I write several thousand words each day, there’s no room for “pre-gaming.”

And one day, I also will be able to use words like lucubrate when answering interview questions...

lu·cu·brate (lky-brt)

intr.v. lu·cu·brat·ed, lu·cu·brat·ing, lu·cu·brates

To write in a scholarly fashion; produce scholarship.

[Latin lcubrre, lcubrt-, to work at night by lamplight; see leuk- in Indo-European roots.]