On Creative Unproductivity
A terrific post today on New APPS, from the always-interesting Helen De Cruz, on the value of unstructured time for academic creativity.
I tell my students: Spend half your time reading what everyone else is reading, and spend half your time reading what no one else is reading (Icelandic folk stories, in De Cruz's example). For the latter especially, trust your dorky sense of fun, not some crabbed and conventional notion of what is productive. It will broaden and energize you, and unexpected avenues will open.