Podcast appearances and mentions of Paul J Silvia

How can you learn to love uncertainty? Is it better to cultivate acceptance or strive for change? And, after 223 episodes, what is the meaning of life?  SOURCES:Jessica Alquist, professor of psychology at Texas Tech University.Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at The University of Queensland.Raymond Carver, 20th-century American short story writer and poet.Stephen Colbert, comedian and late-night TV host.Matt Damon, actor and film producer.Viktor Frankl, 20th-century Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher.Steve Heine, professor of psychology at University of British Columbia.Charles Krauthammer, journalist.Reinhold Niebuhr, 20th-century American theologian.Keanu Reeves, actor.Elisabeth Sifton, author, editor, and book publisher. RESOURCES:Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times, by Steve Heine (2025)."Learning to Love Uncertainty," by Jessica L. Alquist and Roy F. Baumeister (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2024)."Confused or Curious? Openness/Intellect Predicts More Positive Interest-Confusion Relations," by Kirill Fayn, Paul J. Silvia, Egon Dejonckheere, Stijn Verdonck, and Peter Kuppens (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2019)."A Note to Readers," by Charles Krauthammer (The Washington Post, 2018)."Interest — The Curious Emotion," by Paul J. Silvia (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2008).The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, by Elisabeth Sifton (2003)."Late Fragment," by Raymond Carver (A New Path to the Waterfall, 1989).Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (1946). EXTRAS:"What Makes an Idea Interesting?" by No Stupid Questions (2024)."Should You Get Out of Your Comfort Zone?" by No Stupid Questions (2024)."Do You Need Closure?" by No Stupid Questions (2024)."Secret o' Life," by James Taylor (JT, 1977).

What do Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Malcolm Gladwell have in common? Are interesting theories more significant than true ones? And what has been keeping Angela up at night? Plus: an important announcement about the show.  SOURCES:Charles Darwin, 19th-century naturalist and biologist.Murray Davis, cultural sociologist.Malcolm Gladwell, journalist and author.Adam Grant, professor of management and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.B. F. Skinner, 20th-century American psychologist. RESOURCES:Small Fry, by Lisa Brennan-Jobs (2018).Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth (2016)."Why Malcolm Gladwell's Ideas Are So Interesting, Whether or Not They're True," by Adam Grant (Quartz, 2015).David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell (2013).Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life, by Todd Kashdan (2009)."Interest — The Curious Emotion," by Paul J. Silvia (2008).Exploring the Psychology of Interest, by Paul J. Silvia (2006)."The Ketchup Conundrum," by Malcolm Gladwell (The New Yorker, 2004)."That's Interesting!: Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology," by Murray S. Davis (Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 1971).The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin (1872). EXTRAS:"How Do You Identify a Narcissist?" by No Stupid Questions (2024)."Is Screen Time as Poisonous as We Think?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."Abortion and Crime, Revisited (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

Join the ADHD reWired Team every second Tuesday of the month for ADHD reWired's monthly Live Q&A at 10:30am Pacific / 1:30pm Eastern!  If you're listening to this early enough on the day it came out, go to adhdrewired.com/events to register so you can join the ADHD reWired Team live on Zoom!   Then, get an uninterrupted listening experience of this episode and all ADHD reWired episodes when you become a Patron at $5.00 a month or more by going to adhdrewired.com/Patreon! You might even catch some extra questions when you become a Patron and tune into the Patreon-only private podcast feed!  Questions/Topics:   [00:01:23] Welcome & introducing the panel [0003:12] A listener who was recently diagnosed with ADHD shortly after their son was diagnosed, doesn't feel good about their prescriber's knowledge of ADHD treatments.  What can be done to find the right people to prescribe or to help educate the prescribers beyond the usual, “How are you feeling?”   [00:11:44] Managing expectations and perspectives about communicating without needing to go into a lecture about having ADHD.  [00:13:14] How do you advocate for yourself when you don't yet know what works best for you? [00:18:24] A discussion about boundary-setting and boundary violations.  [00:20:40] A listener asks about their 11-year-old son and screen time.  [00:30:18] “Do any of you have sensory issues?  When it comes to clothing and scents, is this an ADHD-specific thing, or could there be something else going on?”  [00:36:53] A masters student asks for tools and suggestions for keeping on top of writing, getting started on assignments, and working consistently.   [00:42:50] “Regarding the emotional regulation piece, how do you conceptualize where ADHD ends and the other struggles (such as bipolar or borderline or other mood disorders) begin?” [00:52:22] A listener asks about the secret-sauce to Eric nearing the 500-podcast-episode milestone, and also seeks advice on starting a podcast and being terrified of not being able to do it consistently.   [00:56:17] A listener talks about RSD and anxiety, and asks the panelists for advice when having a difficult time articulating their needs, especially at work.   Resources & Honorable Mentions: Website: CHADD at chadd.org Book: Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glower Tawwab Book: How to Write a Lot - A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul J. Silvia, PhD Book: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield  ADHD reWired Episode 118: Could it be Bipolar Disorder? With Dr. Robert Olivardia

Today's episode kicks off a 4-part series where I will be talking about the core values of my work here at Simple Prospering. I work with many different types of service-based businesses, and have run a few different types myself, but no matter what the business does, these 4 values describe the kind of container I would love to see all businesses existing within because they are the values that make for healthy business ecosystems, and healthy humans who operate within those ecosystems. So regardless of what it is you do in your work, these 4 values provide great compass points for any of us who are self-employed or running a small business. In today's episode I will tuck into value number 1: Make progress! That might sound like, "duh", but it is the thing we often bump up against when working for ourselves. I discuss the trap of the 3 P's (perfectionism, procrastination and paralysis), the growth mindset, the difference between being in motion vs. being in action, and the difference between interest-curiosity and deprivation-curiosity. This episode comes with exercises you can try out yourself to get out of any of those 3 P's. SHOW NOTES Dr. Carol Dweck: https://profiles.stanford.edu/carol-dweck James Clear on Taking Action: https://jamesclear.com/taking-action Dr. Judson Brewer book Unwinding Anxiety: https://drjud.com/book/ Jordan A. Litman and Paul J. Silvia study on interest and deprivation curiosity dimensions: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16740115/

Episode 36: I share in this episode the talking points for an invited talk I did about building up expertise. As an academic, I talked about four of the factors that helped me build up my knowledge and skills in academia and how I continue to develop them. Mentioned in this episode: Paul J. Silvia's How to Write A Lot Support this project by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Facebook Group. Also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. Music by Lava Koirala --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scholars-unbound/message

Is the ability to be funny determined by an individual's sex? Dan and Akin are joined by writer, director and performer, Gem Carmella. The trio squeeze a research study that stirred up the masses after it found and proclaimed men to be funnier than women. - Research Paper: 'Sex Differences in Humor Production Ability: A Meta-Analysis' by Gil Greengross, Paul J. Silvia and Emily C. Nusbaum

Joanna Arch is an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is also a member of the Cancer Center in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. Her research initially focused on anxiety disorders, but she’s recently added a focus on cancer patients. Being married to an oncologist and having a personal interest in existential issues helped her embrace her initial reservations about entering work on cancer, which can be very emotional and challenging. Once she braved the waters, though, she found increased meaning, drive, and satisfaction in her work. An avid runner and trained as a classical musician, Joanna understands the power of discipline, and she brings structured discipline to her work day. In today’s episode, you’ll hear how Joanna stays focused and maximizes her time at work, whether it’s with students, in the lab, or writing grants.  Speaking of grants, Joanna’s favorite part of writing grants and papers is -- wait for it -- editing. The hardest part for her is getting started. When it comes to grants, she’s tasted both success and failure, and she understands that rejection is just part of the grant-application game. That said, she’s determined to learn from each failure, each bit of criticism, every line of feedback. She’s also keen on recognizing her own weaknesses and getting help when needed. In this episode, you’ll learn… How things changed for Joanna about a year ago after she received tenure How Joanna stays healthy and productive as a faculty member About the “zone of genius” and how Joanna monitors her time and plans her week How to stay connected to your purpose and avoid burnout How to deal with rejection in academia Joanna’s grant writing tips How Joanna transitioned her career from a focus on treatment of anxiety to including psychological issues unique to cancer patients Tips from the episode On structuring and tracking time to increase productivity… Use an Excel spreadsheet to track every minute of the workday Review tallies at the end of each week Brain dump at the end of each week and create a list of what you want to accomplish in the coming week Schedule small tasks for when you’re a passenger in transit Create writing goals and block/schedule writing time Track your mood throughout the day to understand what tasks most light your fire and then plan accordingly   On writing and applying for grants Understand that applying for grants is a hyper-competitive space and have realistic expectations about the odds Be responsive to feedback Don’t give up. Keep hitting. When a paper is rejected, write responses (for yourself) to each point made by the reviewer, even if you aren’t going to resubmit to that journal Be honest about your weaknesses and get help in those areas Break down the writing process into small parts Links from the episode: How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul J. Silvia The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity About Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Arch Lab Joanna’s bio at Colorado.edu Research Matters Podcast is hosted by Jason Luoma, who can be found on Twitter @jasonluoma or Facebook at: facebook.com/jasonluomaphd. You download the podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. 

What is it like to start the doctoral prospectus? Kacy chats with Jeannie, EdD student and Writing Center Writing Instructor, about her experience. Jeannie shares three tips and a valuable writing resource. Kacy also announces WriteCast's first Book Club episode! This summer, we'll be reading and reviewing Paul J. Silvia's How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. We invite you to read along and to send your questions and thoughts to us at writingsupport@waldenu.edu.Resources:Paper reviews for Walden students working on their prospectus“Jeannie's First Residency (Jeannie Croichy, EdD Student; Episode 44)” Writecast episode “Transitioning from Master's-Level to Doctoral-Level Writing (Episode 52)” Writecast episode Capstone document templates for Walden students Preproposal Starter Kit “Transitioning from Coursework to Doctoral Capstone Writing" recorded webinar “Writing Process for Longer Research Projects” recorded webinar See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Guardian writer, psychology journalist, and author of the critically acclaimed book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman, dropped by the program to talk to me about the writer’s journey, turning a weekly column into a book, and rethinking positive thinking. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. Start getting more from your site today! Oliver writes about social psychology, self-help culture, productivity, and the science of happiness for his columns in both The Guardian (based in Brooklyn, New York), and Psychologies magazine. He has also interviewed a laundry list of celebrities ranging from Al Gore to Jerry Seinfeld. In his critically acclaimed book, The Antidote (2012), the author went undercover into the heart of the “happiness industrial complex” to explore why our relentless pursuit of happiness and success often leaves us feeling the opposite. The author looked to academics, psychologists, Buddhists, business consultants, philosophers, and many others in a unique search for an “… alternative path to happiness and success that involves embracing failure, pessimism, insecurity, and uncertainty – the very things we spend our lives trying to avoid.” The Los Angeles Times said of the book, “Burkeman’s tour of the ‘negative path’ to happiness makes for a deeply insightful and entertaining book.” If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. In Part One of this file Oliver Burkeman and I discuss: The author’s lifetime love of journalism How his own challenges with time management lead to his latest book project Why constraints can improve your productivity Time-tested advice for getting words onto the page Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes If you’re ready to see for yourself why over 200,000 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — just go to StudioPress.com How the Author of ‘The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking’ Oliver Burkeman Writes: Part Two OliverBurkeman.com The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking – Oliver Burkeman This column will change your life – Oliver Burkeman investigates routes to mental wellbeing for The Guardian Why time management is ruining our lives – Oliver Burkeman Oliver Burkeman for Psychologies magazine How Neuroscientist Michael Grybko Defines Writer’s Block How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing – Paul J. Silvia Oliver Burkeman on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How the Author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can t Stand Positive Thinking Oliver Burkeman Writes: Part One Voiceover: Rainmaker FM. Kelton Reid: And welcome back to The Writer Files. This is your host, Kelton Reid, here to take you on another tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of renowned writers. The Guardian writer, psychology journalist, and author of the acclaimed book, The Antidote: Happiness for People who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman dropped by the program to talk to me about the writer’s journey, turning a weekly column into a book, and re-thinking positive thinking. Oliver writes about psychology, self-help culture, productivity, and the science of happiness for his columns of both The Guardian and Psychologies Magazine, and he’s also interviewed a laundry list of celebrities, ranging from Al Gore to Jerry Seinfeld. In his critically acclaimed book, The Antidote, the author went undercover into the heart of the happiness-industrial-complex, to explore why our relentless pursuit of happiness and success often leaves us feeling the opposite. The author looked at academics, psychologists, Buddhists, business consultants, philosophers, and many others, in the unique search for an alternative path to happiness and success that involves embracing failure, pessimism, insecurity, and uncertainty: the very things we spend our lives trying to avoid. The LA Times said of the book, “Burkeman’s tour of the negative path to happiness makes for a deeply insightful and entertaining book.” In part one of this file, Oliver and I discuss the author’s lifetime love of journalism, how his challenges with time management led to his latest book project, why constraints can improve your productivity, and time-tested advice for getting words onto the page. The Writer Files is brought to you by the all the new StudioPress Sites, a turnkey solution that combines the ease of an all-in-one website builder with the flexible power of WordPress. It’s perfect for authors, bloggers, podcasters and affiliate marketers, as well as those selling physical products, digital downloads, and membership programs. If you’re ready to take your WordPress site to the next level, see for yourself why over 200,000 website owners trust StudioPress. Go to Rainmaker.FM/StudioPress now. That’s Rainmaker.FM/StudioPress. And if you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews as soon as they’re published. And we are rolling, once again, on The Writer Files today, with a special guest. Oliver Burkeman has agreed to join us. Journalist, Guardian writer, columnist extraordinaire, and author of a book I am quite enjoying right now, The Antidote: Happiness for People who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, probably one of the greatest titles for a self-help book, ever. Thank you for joining us. Oliver Burkeman: It’s my pleasure. Thanks for asking. The Author s Lifetime Love of Journalism Kelton Reid: So, as I noted earlier, you’re probably sick of talking about The Antidote. It has been out for several years now, but it does seem somewhat timely now, for some reason. When I found it, by another great article you wrote for The Guardian, my wife saw the title, it was sitting on the kitchen table. She was like, “Yes!” I was like, “I know. It’s perfect. It’s perfect for right now.” So, anyway. I’d love to talk to you some about that, some about what you’re up to more recently. You write about social psychology, self-help culture, productivity, and the science of happiness, all these great things. Yeah, I’d just love to just kind of get into your process. So, maybe for listeners who aren’t familiar with you or your journey as a writer, you could get us up to speed a little bit on how you got here? Oliver Burkeman: Sure. Yes, I always feel like my story, my personal story rather, is incredibly boring, because I have like …. I’ve been on like one-track mind with regard to this since I was about like, eight, or something. And my parents will embarrass me, if requested, by getting out copies of a little sort of photocopied newsletter I tried to make my, like grade school, whatever the right … it’s not elementary school … primary school in the UK … that people read. And I was sort of doing all that school newspaper stuff, and then student journalism in university, and then as soon as I could, I started hanging around the offices of newspapers doing casual copy editing shifts here and there until I, I don’t know, I guess it was something to get me a job then to get security to escort me from the building. So anyway, I just like, I wanted to be able to say … First of all, I went out and got a ton of life experience, and then I decided it was time to write about it. But actually, I had apparently known from a very, very young age that writing, and sort of journalism specifically, because I still think of the book that I’m working on now as journalism. Some people take that as almost a derogatory term compared to, I don’t know, nonfiction writing or something. Anyway, I sort of wanted to do it all along. Now in that time, I’ve done a lot of very cool things. I have done news reporting, I’ve been reporting from the UK, the US, written about politics, written about … interviewed a bunch of celebrities for movie pages or whatever. So, I have done a bunch of different things in that time. But, looked at from one level higher up, one vantage point higher up, it is just writing stuff since I was old enough to have any thoughts about what I wanted to do. Kelton Reid: Wow, wow. So, that’s cool. So, your life experience has been your … kind of, the journey is the destination for writing. So there wasn’t like a lightning bolt. It was always kind of a part of your life, huh? Oliver Burkeman: Yeah, I thinking one of the things that did sort of happen that was interesting from my perspective, I don’t know about anyone else, was that specifically, coming to write about psychology, psychotherapy, work, productivity, all this kind of area of stuff. That was very much a kind of … that was a sort of fairly sudden realization that I was already obsessed with all this stuff in my personal life and in my work life. And then, actually, it was really good stuff to write about. So, I was sort of geeking out on productivity systems and sort of furtively reading self-help books long before I realized that actually it was a good, interesting, journalistic subject matter, as well. And I hope that the result, in the case of The Antidote, is somewhere between self-help book and a reported work of journalism. And I kind of like going back and forth over that one. How His Own Challenges with Time Management Led to His Latest Book Project Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. Well, The Antidote, dubbed as an anti-self-help self-help book, has had some great critical acclaim. It’s described as, kind of that blurb, Success through failure, calm through embracing anxiety, a total original approach to self-help. And, I’m really glad I found it. The time management piece you wrote, Why Time Management is Ruining Our Lives, is actually how I found you. And that was a fantastic piece, also. So as you mentioned, you cover a lot of different bases there with your journalism. But that was a great piece. You were talking about how time is kind of slipping out of our control, and the thousands of productivity apps that we’re faced with every day, and techniques designed to enhance our personal productivity seem to exacerbate those anxieties, which is something that you cover quite extensively as to the reasons behind that. So, that’s cool that the book, it seems, was kind of a culmination of a lot of the things that you write about in your column for The Guardian there, This Column Will Change Your Life. And then, it’s also, as you noted, it’s got great storytelling, fantastic examples from great philosophers, psychologists, a lot of good writerly quotes in there, too, thank you very much. You’ve got like, Edith Wharton and Shakespeare, and you get into pieces on how the Beat Poets kind of all got into meditation, and so on and so forth. So, I am very much enjoying the book, The Antidote. So what are you working on now? There’s lots of places to find your work out there. I’ll link to the column and your website. What’ve you got in the hopper? Oliver Burkeman: Well, I’m continuing to write the column for The Guardian. I’m working on a few long pieces for them. But I guess the biggest thing is I am working on another book, which kind of picks up on some of those themes in the time management piece, because it is about, more generally, time, and how to use time, and our experience of time. And basically trying to look at this question of time management, which tends to be treated in a very sort of superficial way, in my opinion, through a kind of philosophical lens, if that doesn’t sound too grandiose, based on the fact that human life is very short. The average human lifespan is something like 4,000 weeks. So it’s a terrifying thing whenever I think about it. Really, time-management is the ultimate problem in philosophy, right? Because it s like, How do you make the most of this incredibly short period of time? So, you know, it’s kind of a large subject. But, I’m trying to look at that in this book through psychology, different ways in which we experience time, what affects our experience of time, what makes time feel like it’s speeding up as we get older And also, some of the particular challenges that everyone seems to be dealing with a lot these days, which are very much time-related challenges, like distraction and short attention spans, and all this stuff. As ever, I think it’s a really important point to make in anything I’m writing where I’m telling people, giving people advice, this is all just the stuff that I’m agonizing about and grappling with. This is never because I’ve solved all the problems and my life is perfect and now I’m going to tell you how to have a perfect life. It’s always more kind of therapy, and sort of trying to work it through in the form of a book in the hopes that it maybe helps some other people along the way. So that’s the main thing. The main thing is the book. Why Constraints Can Improve Your Productivity Kelton Reid: Yeah. I mean, I’d love to just kind of pick your brain about productivity, and how you fit all the pieces together. You obviously have a weekly column. You do other things on the side, and then you’re working on this new book. How much time are you spending reading, doing research, before you get started? Oliver Burkeman: Wow, I sort of … I so love talking about this topic. It’s almost troubling, because I think it is partly talking about your process is a great way to not get on with your writing process. But anyway, I think that and the other thing to say is that we have a three month old baby at the moment. So, everything I’ve learned about productivity and work processes has kind of been ripped up into small shreds and thrown up in the air, and it’s all kind of resettling a little bit at the moment. I think that’s actually been really useful, from the point of view of my writing. I’m glad to have that kind of earthquake strike the process because you get of all sorts of ruts. And the other thing, of course, is that when you don’t have very much time, because you’re trying to be an active parent as well, turns out to be quite good, actually. If you only have three or four hours in a day to dedicate to your writing, you get a move on. If you have fifteen hours, you risk spending it all on Twitter. I still spend plenty of time on Twitter, but less than I did. I’ve always been someone who very much mixes up the research, reporting, reading, planning, and writing. So it’s really hard for me to put figures on it and say, “Well, if I’m writing a book, first of all, I would spend this many months doing research, and then I’ll move to the writing phase.” There’s as little bit of that. Obviously, towards the end, it’s more writing, and towards the beginning, it’s more research. But, I’ve always sort of jumbled it up. Divided it up into chapters or chunks, and tried to research and write one of them, just to have something, and then you keep the other tracks going simultaneously. I think that’s probably a very, sort of, someone trained in newspapers, like I was. I think that’s probably a very typical thing, as opposed to being, I don’t know, an academic who moved into this kind of writing. It’s all kind of jumbled. And I have quite thought-through ways of keeping the material organized, like, physically, and then Evernote, and Word, and everything, but when it comes actually to how I’m using the time, all those stages are pretty much jumbled up with each other. And I think that’s, partly, I’m unable to do anything more organized, but it’s also because I think it’s also helpful. I think you sort of … One of the things I always get from planning and actually writing long pieces or chapters is then you suddenly see the piece that you’re missing, and the person you’ve got to go and talk to, or the bit of your argument that doesn’t make sense yet. So, you’ve got to go away and walk around the park with a pencil in your mouth for a couple of hours to try to figure out how to make it make sense. And you don’t find that if you don’t get going. If you’re just sort of vacuuming up information waiting for the day when you’re going to start writing. Time-Tested Advice for Getting Words Onto the Page Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. Well, it seems like there’s a teaching piece to kind of do what you do, too. It’s almost as if you are like you re in academics with the amount of research that you put into stuff. So, I’m sure that your brain kind of needs those restful periods where you’re doing productive procrastination and focusing on other … or just taking a walk to let your brain kind of incubate some of these bigger ideas, because there’s a lot of big ideas in your writing. So, I mean, it sounds like you sit down every day. Do you find that you’re more productive in the morning or the evening, or again, is it just kind of whenever the inspiration strikes? Oliver Burkeman: No, in the level of the day, I am fairly rhythmic. As I say, thrown up in the air a bit recently. But basically, I am a morning writer, and I sort of try to re-fence really only maybe four hours, occasionally, and maybe five consecutive hours. Usually … it used to be like 7:30 am to half-past mid-day. Now, thanks to my son, it’s more like going to be nine am to one or one thirty or something. But that’s sort of before anything else. On a good day, this does not always work, and anyone listening will probably be able to go on Twitter and find evidence of it not working, but on a good day, I would not check email or Twitter or anything else before those hours are done. I even … I’ve got a MacBook, and I had an old one that I thought was broken, and I replaced it. Then, I realized that I could get that one fixed for a small sum. So, now I’ve got a machine that I try to do the writing on for the book, and it is … it does have the Internet, but it basically has nothing. I deliberately removed the possibility of almost any form of distraction. I can find the browser, because sometimes you need to go back and look at your research or whatever, but that’s a kind of trick that has worked well for me on the book. With more sort of day-to-day journalism I need to be more connected than that, so I don’t try to hide myself away so much in those hours. But, the only thing that has ever really worked for me is the time honored advice to do the most important thing first, and then, if the rest of the day sort of collapses into a mess, at least you’ve done the thing that you really needed to do. Writer s Block as a Fallacy in Explanation Kelton Reid: Right. That’s a good one. Well, both the using a dedicated machine for the bigger writing piece, and then swallowing your frog kind of first thing of the day is … those are good time and tested tricks. All right, so I really want to pick your brain about the writer’s block question. I’ve spoken with … and I know you kind of rub elbows with neuroscience and psychology, and I’ve actually had a neuroscientist on the show to talk to me about some of the causes of writer’s block, or even whether or not it’s a thing. So, do you have some thoughts on the subject? Oliver Burkeman: Yeah, I don’t have much in the way of sort of a scientific explanation, as far as anything I’ve worked on recently in that sense, but I’ve sort of experienced my fair share of it. I really like … there’s a guy called Paul Sylvia who wrote a book called How to Write a Lot, which is aimed at academic psychologists, but it’s actually really useful information for anybody writing, I think. He makes this great point that writer’s block is kind of an example of a certain kind of fallacy in explanation, because you’re using the description of what happens, which is that you’re not getting any writing done, as an explanation. It’s like, “Well, I’m not doing any writing. I must have writer’s block.” It’s just another way of saying “I’m not doing any writing. I must not be doing any writing.” It’s sort of a description of the behavior masquerading as an explanation for that behavior. I don’t know that some distinct thing called writer’s block, in any meaningful sense, exists. I think that procrastination and inactivity and not doing the things you wanted to do definitely exist, and probably we sort of romanticize it a bit more with writing than we do with other things. And, the romanticization helps create the problem, because it becomes this very sort of … this idea that there’s this very grand issue that you’ve got. I’m not the first person to say, but you don’t get “washing machine repairman block” or “plumber block” or “barista block.” When you have to do the job, and we don’t glamorize it in the culture as an amazingly romantic job, you find a way to get on with it even when you might not feel like doing it. Kelton Reid: Thanks so much for joining me for this half of a tour through the writer’s process. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, please subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating or a review on iTunes to help other writers find us. For more episodes, or to just leave a comment or a question, you can drop by WriterFiles.FM. And you can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. Talk to you next week.