Taffy Brodeseser-Akner:

By March, 25 million people were dancing to "#Selfie." Was that because we liked it, or because our very means for cultural discovery had been manipulated to guarantee that we would?

David Brooks:

If you want to win the war for attention, don't try to say "no" to the trivial distractions you find on the information smorgasbord; try to say "yes" to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else.

David Streitfeld:

The man who sells half the books in America seemed to want nothing more each year than for everyone to have a good time. All he asked in return was silence.

An Amazon spokesman did not respond to questions on the subject of fear.

Joshua Rothman:

We live in a consumer society premised on the idea of self-expression through novelty. We believe that we can find ourselves through the acquisition of new things. Perhaps inevitably, we have reconceived creativity as a kind of meta-consumption: a method of working your way toward the other side of the consumer-producer equation, of swimming, salmon-like, back to the origin of the workflow.

Among the many things we lost when we abandoned the Romantic idea of creativity, the most valuable may have been the idea of creativity's stillness. If you're really creative, really imaginative, you don't have to make things. You just have to live, observe, think, and feel.

Patricia Robinson:

For some reason, knowing tomorrow won't be so bad doesn't make today pass any faster. In my experience. But that awful day was Monday, and now it's Friday and I don't remember how bad I felt. Now that is a genuine blessing, because I do remember how bad I hated all the misery I can't remember.