Excerpt from the first part of the article:

The idea that you need to keep busy permeates much of today’s culture. Tasking, and especially multitasking, seems to be the sign of being smart. By contrast, sitting idly by while others are engaged in seemingly useful work can make you look like there’s something wrong with you. But is it possible that something is wrong with those other people?

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

I still can hear my mother's kindly voice reminding me, "Susan, finish one thing before you go on to another."

I do not have ADHD. Yet as I look back on the many projects I've had the honor to complete in my 80+ years of life thus far—6 books, 300+ blog posts on this website that have attracted over 27 million reads, lectures across the globe, enabled a cure for vulvodynia, created a name for the phenomenon of adult sibling alienation, not to mention the many clients I've been honored to have been able to help so that they have more satisfying life journeys and marriage relationships—still, I increasingly appreciate my mother's sage advice.

Nekro drank with his left hand because two fingers on his right had never closed properly after whatever had happened to them. Nobody at the bar knew the story. Somebody had asked once, years ago, and received a look that made a second question feel intrusive.

Politics came on the television above the bottles. The sound was off, which improved everyone involved.

A younger man two stools down watched the captions for a while before asking, “You ever trust any of these people?”

Nekro smiled into his whiskey and rubbed his crooked fingers against the bar.

“I trust history. History had better manners about these things.”

“What things?”

“Who was in charge.”

He lifted his bad hand and counted anyway, forcing each finger down with his thumb.

“Empires were run by emperors. Kingdoms were run by kings. Governments were run by governors. Nobody had to pretend the language wasnt trying to warn you.”

The younger man laughed into his beer.

“And now?”

Nekro looked up at the television. A politician was smiling beneath a flag while the captions promised something nobody in the room expected to receive.

He finished his whiskey, left the empty glass on the wet ring it had made, and reached for his coat.

“Now we have countries....

Most people picture the Great Sphinx of Giza when they hear the word “Sphinx.” But the Sphinx from the story of Oedipus was something very different.

In Egyptian tradition, sphinxes were associated with kingship, strength, protection, and divine power. The Greek Sphinx, meanwhile, was a winged female monster that terrorized Thebes and killed those who failed to answer her riddle.

The interesting part is how a similar hybrid creature could represent royal protection in Egypt but death and intellectual terror in Greek mythology.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

What did you want to be when you grew up?

This is a pretty innocent question that all children are asked, and ask themselves. Mine was a baker, florist, musical instrument maker, and a U.N. worker at different times.

So when my friend said, “I want to be a CEO of a big company,” I was surprised. While it was probably just youthful blabber, I remember that comment vividly to this day.

The surprise was manyfold. I had no idea how one would become a CEO, or what that path would look like. But mainly, the surprise was because I myself would never want to be a CEO, even if (like a bad sitcom plot) somebody handed me that job.

Why this aversion?

It is not hard work I fear. What first comes to mind is a complicated organizational chart.