Maria Popova, Brain Pickings:

Kurt Vonnegut’s recently published daily routine made we wonder how other beloved writers organized their days. So I pored through various old diaries and interviews — many from the fantastic Paris Review archives — and culled a handful of writing routines from some of my favorite authors. Enjoy.

Colin Nissan, writing for McSweeney’s

A writer’s brain is full of little gifts, like a piñata at a birthday party. It’s also full of demons, like a piñata at a birthday party in a mental hospital. The truth is, it’s demons that keep a tortured writer’s spirit alive, not Tootsie Rolls. Sure they’ll give you a tiny burst of energy, but they won’t do squat for your writing. So treat your demons with the respect they deserve, and with enough prescriptions to keep you wearing pants.

Michael Schechter, A Better Mess, on setting goals and reaching them:

Sometimes, the problem with achieving a goal set for you by a ten-year-old is that you have no idea what to do at the finish line. The world changed and I missed it. I was an expert and I was tired and bored. For me, the sweet spot of expertise hovered around the 70% mark. Being an expert is boring. While there’s always more to learn and new problems to solve, nothing is so thrilling as problems that make me fail. The moments when I struggled the most were the moments when I was scientist. I was at my best when comprehension was just out of reach.

I can relate with Schechter. My goal was always to obtain a Ph.D. in meteorology. When I got there last December, I felt a little lost. What was next? Luckily, there are always new problems to be solved.

The guys at Tools & Toys break down the world of pens:

Digital-shmigidal. Who doesn’t still appreciate quality analog products like a good pen? Here is a look at some of the best fine-tip gel ink pens you can buy.

I like the Zebra Sarasa and Pilot G2.

Jeffrey P. Kahn, The New York Times, on early humans’ necessary and strict social norms - and how those norms were broken:

But then, these same lifesaving social instincts didn’t readily lend themselves to exploration, artistic expression, romance, inventiveness and experimentation — the other human drives that make for a vibrant civilization.

To free up those, we needed something that would suppress the rigid social codes that kept our clans safe and alive. We needed something that, on occasion, would let us break free from our biological herd imperative — or at least let us suppress our angst when we did.

We needed beer.

Jessica E. Lessin, reporting for The Wall Street Journal:

Dropbox is buying the owner of the buzzy Mailbox mobile app, making its first move into products outside its core file-sharing service.

Under the deal, the 13 employees of Mailbox owner Orchestra Inc.–including alums of Apple, Stanford University and Ideo–will join Dropbox. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Admittedly, I was initially surprised by this news. Mailbox, if you are unaware, is a free iOS Gmail app that offers a new way to process email. However, if you take a step back and frame the acquisition within the broader context of Dropbox’s activities, it makes sense.

Dropbox arguably already operates the most popular and trustworthy cloud-based system for document management and syncing. In 2012, Dropbox acquired both the music streaming app Audiogalaxy and photo cloud-storage company Snapjoy. Throw in today’s purchase of Mailbox, and Dropbox now has cloud-based documents, music, photos, and email.

Sound familiar? It’s eerily similar to the offerings provided by Google’s many services and Apple’s iCloud, but with one exception - decentralization. With Dropbox’s focus on a reliable and platform-agnostic service, users aren’t tied to a particular ecosystem. Dropbox isn’t there in full yet, but I think their vision is becoming clear.

Dropbox, a service that was once derided as a mere “feature” by Steve Jobs, is now building a robust company. Jobs was famous for saying one thing and meaning another. I imagine when he tried to downplay Dropbox back in 2009, he saw what was coming and he knew it could pose a problem to Apple.

The acquisition of a mobile mailbox app might seem like small peanuts. Make no mistake, it’s a big deal. Over the past few years, while services like Mobile Me and iCloud have struggled at providing a great cloud-based solution, Dropbox has quietly built brand trust through reliability. Companies like Apple should be worried.

Ben Machell, The Times Magazine, on Gabriele Galimberti’s photography project:

Everyone remembers their childhood toys. The fact that I can recall how most of mine tasted better than I can remember the names of my primary school teachers says everything you need to know about the universe kids inhabit. Indeed, when Galimberti hit upon the idea of photographing children from around the world with their toys, he was not expecting to uncover much we did not already know: kids love dolls and dinosaurs and trucks and cuddly monkeys, and will construct worlds around them before eventually, inevitably, disregarding them for ever. “At their age, they are pretty all much the same,” is his conclusion after 18 months working on the project. “They just want to play.”

My favorite toy at that age was probably a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle¹.

Shawn Blanc adds a voice of reason to the news that Google is shutting down its RSS subscription service, Reader:

The sites we read and subscribe to are not going away — it’s just the service we’ve been using to keep our read statuses in sync that is. Over the coming months there will no doubt be several alternatives which begin popping up, and so long as you’ve got your OPML file then you can move your “subscriptions” anywhere you like.

Philip Bump, The Atlantic Wire:

It took tax evasion to bring down Capone. A Native American group hopes that another arcane economic law — trademarks — can do the same to the Washington Redskins.

Later today, the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board will consider if the NFL team should lose its federal trademark because it violates Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act, which bars any mark that

[c]onsists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute

The idea is that if the team loses the trademark, then third-parties will be free to flood the market with Redskins memorabilia. In essence, it would tank the value of the team, forcing Daniel Snyder to change the name.

I’m not Native American, nor am I familiar with the etymology of the word redskin, but it has always seemed like a rather offensive term. What if the Saints were called the Brownies, or if the Seahawks were called the Yellow Faces? At some point the intent should be outweighed by effect.

Kontra, on Google’s motivation:

Above all, despite many examples to the contrary, Google appealed to manifest impartiality: its search results were algorithmically derived, untouched by human biases and thus fair. The list of grandiose promises and statements made by Google that turned out to be false and hypocritical is uncomfortably long.