Jonah Lehrer

Writer

A writer for the New Yorker, Wired and various other publications who was caught plagiarizing quotes, but in the humblest of fashions has rediscovered his love of writing. He’s not writing for others now, he’s writing purely for the love of it. He’s in the middle of his redemptive story, and it was great to hear him speak in the humility of having lost everything to discovering the joy of being a husband and a father and to rediscover the love of putting a pen to paper again.

Here’s the notes I took from his talk.

If it was easy everyone would do it. We seek distractions because we will realize all we have is the work we love. Love is like pushing a rock up a hill. The love is in the process. The ups and downs of the stories. Find the why and the how will take care of itself. Do it for yourself. Fight against the voices that tell you can’t do it or remind you of past failures. Love (the work you love) is what lasts. An arch is made stronger when more weight is put on top of it because the pieces are more tightly bound together – more solidified.