Y.S. Stephen - Reader | Casual Observer

A portrait of Anthony Hopkins. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A friend posted this quote on Facebook last week: There was nothing in his construction, in his architecture that would permit him to, but Peter did venture out on the water. It was audacity; it was temerity; it was inconceivable; it was madness; insanity of the first order. But he stepped out and the water held him; he took the second leg and the water held him – and he began to walk to Jesus ! After some time he stood and his history began to challenge him... The key to audacity is to kill the intellectual! – C.D. Gwamna I did not think much of it, but I ran into another quote while surfing the web this week: We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap. - Anthony Hopkins I have no special liking for quotable quotes. I believe it does sometimes breeds the tende...

Greek philosopher Archimedes having his famous bath (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Picture a naked man running in the streets, shouting “ Yes ! Yes! I found it. I understand it now.” Yeah. That should be Archimedes after a crucial mental breakthrough on his problem regarding the king’s crown. After a long period of intense concentration on determining whether the king’s crown was 100% gold without harming the item and coming no closer to an answer, Archimedes decided to take a break at the local bath. That break proved more valuable than all the hours he had spent at work. A lot of creative people do say most of their ideas come out of the blue...when away from real work. An article in by Melanie Pinola on Lifehacker illustrates this well. You can also check designer Erik Spiekermann ’s interview with Design Matters . One of the most cited book regarding thought processes and creativity is the Art of Thought by Graham Wallas (1926).  Wallas broke down the creative p...

  Academy Winner: Best Actor . Three times. That is a feat that no one has achieved, except for Daniel Day-Lewis . The moody-looking, son of Poet Laureate , Cecil Day-Lewis , took his first Oscar gong for Best Actor in My Left Foot (1990), his second in 2008 for There Will Be Blood , and just this week took the third  for his role in Spielberg 's Lincoln . So what makes Daniel Day-Lewis special? Is he just lucky? Or was any of the three awards a mistake, you know, may be someone else deserved it more? In any case, whatever you think of him, many people who have worked with him says he takes his art seriously and has a unique way to work. As a writer, I am curious to learn Daniel Day-Lewis' approach to work. I want to know how he became one of the best around. As I read more about him, I discovered three things that makes him unique. 1. Fussy Bunny Day-Lewis is reported to be very choosy of the roles he takes in the movie business. He is said to always agonise...