Thisismarkantony.com

1.        If I can write it, I can live it. 2.        Writing is better than living. 3.        If something can’t be found in a book it’s not important. 4.        If you didn’t read it in a book it didn’t yet happen or it didn’t get imagined yet. 5.        Fiction today is tomorrow’s truth. 6.        Never ban a book.  Instead have others read it, discuss it, dismiss it. 7.        Novels record the history of the future. 8.        The world we create on paper will always be bigger than the world we live in. 9.        One becomes a dictator, in part, because he read the wrong books. 10.    Books are like costumes that you get to wear and become someone else...

It occurred to me the other day, when discussing my seven-year-old’s mathematics skills, that he thinks numerically. He processes information, much like I do: everything is seen as some kind of equation or percentage of something. As you start to tell me a story about something that happened 15 years ago I am already thinking how that represents a third of my lifespan. When you tell me any number – for anything – I instantly measure, compare, and analyze. Why did I share this? Because I realize, as my wife pointed out, that not everyone thinks this way. Indeed many people process information differently. It could be based on their talents, emotions, experiences, needs, training, ideology, etc. We all process our experiences, conversations, or thoughts through some kind of  prism. To a rabbi, everything is seen as pro-Jew or anti-Jew. To a businessperson, life is expressed in terms of profitability. To kids, they determine how to navigate through life by how much fun ...