Dream Houses: Lite

woman builds her guitar-playing daughter an intricate dollhouse inside a guitar, thus making my mom look like utter shit (sorry mom)

Dream Houses

the de menil family's private home, via austin kleon

How to Think Like Holmes

Although much pop neuropsychology is just self-help gussied up to look like science, the book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes is the kind of self-help I wouldn't mind getting anyway. In a promotional article on Slate, the author unpacks just one cognitive trait Holmes seemed to display: focused attention in place of non-directed thinking. Or, as Holmes rebuked Watson, "You see, but you do not observe." In order to truly transmute our experiences into observations, we must learn to tune out distractions and live mindfully in the present.

Konnikova's own observation - that the myriad distractions modern thinkers must combat helps unfocus and distract us - is not new. But the study she cites, showing that "a wandering mind is an unhappy mind", gives pause for thought. Dividing your attention between work, email, facebook and random Wikipedia look-ups may not just be bad for productivity. It also seems to degrade your intellectual capacity and your emotional buoyancy.

All this to say that I'd love to read this book, and that I should probably get back to work right now.

A Pickpocket's Tale

• “It’s all about the choreography of people’s attention,” he said. “Attention is like water. It flows. It’s liquid. You create channels to divert it, and you hope that it flows the right way.”

• “Grift sense is the closest thing to a sixth sense we have,” he told me. “It’s stepping outside yourself and seeing through the other person’s eyes, thinking through the other person’s mind, but it’s happening on a subconscious level.” He went on, “I can analyze how I do things, but the actual doing it—when the synapses just start firing—I can’t explain.”

- my favorite quotations from Adam Green's profile of Apollo Robbins, a gentleman pickpocket, available for free in its entirety

WBEZ explores what a Chicago accent sounds like, where it comes from, and where it's going.

Weekend Feels

Boys Are Back in Town/Ignition (Remix) - The Mountain Goats

May your weekend feel like this song - full of relentlessly building excitement and harmonious friends, with a surprise twist somewhere in the middle.

Countdown

Beyonce + Snuggies has never made so much sense.

When you're done with this, check out the side-by-side comparison to the official video. What a meticulous LOL (Labor of Love). What a spot-on parody. What an incredible jungle-themed living room.