Brain Pickings

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I love the website brainpickings.org (+ its newsletter) for its fascinating reflections at the intersection of the arts (visual, literary, musical...), science and spirituality and for the way it distils the essential ideas from a wide range of books that I would otherwise not have the time to read. Its founder and sole contributor, Maria Popova relies on voluntary donations to keep the service afloat. The reflection that can be found here, which makes reference to the highly influential writings of the great cosmologist and communicator Carl Sagan, encourages us all to take a step back as we approach the end of this tumultuous year so as to better reflect on our lives, our purpose and then continue to "do the work which our time asks of us".

Here's an explanation of exactly what "Brain Pickings" is:

"Brain Pickings is my one-woman labor of love — a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why. Mostly, it’s a record of my own becoming as a person — intellectually, creatively, spiritually — and an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life.

Founded in 2006 as a weekly email that went out to seven friends and eventually brought online, the site was included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive in 2012."

And here Maria explains how it all started, sharing ten things that she has learned in the 10 years of Brain Pickings.

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