"All of us have a choice when we get up: we can use our energy for good, or we can use our energy for bad. And your job, your purpose in life, is joy. It just is."

Critically endangered, the Antioquia Brushfinch is range-restricted to the northern Central Andes in Colombia. In 1971, this small bird was considered extinct but was thankfully rediscovered in 2018. Recent expeditions have found even more viable populations! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/antbrf1

This is one of my absolute favourites.

"There is a tendency among songwriters, as they get older, to refine—to use fewer words to allow for easier melodies. But to refine is to reel back, to withdraw. Apple does the opposite, reimagining her music to accommodate even more words, more of herself."

"Of course, if you look around, you can always find something to complain about. But if you do so habitually, that is probably hurting you, bringing down others, and making you a less attractive person to be around."

"Individuals with a strong internal locus of control believe events in their life are primarily a result of their own actions... People with a strong external locus of control tend to praise or blame external factors such as the teacher or the difficulty of the exam."

"We should continue to study exactly how and for whom these apps are psychologically ruinous and respond directly to the consensus reached by that research. Governments should urge or require companies to build more in-app tools to discourage overuse."

Cultivating your quiet ego "starts by questioning a great deal of conventional wisdom, which tells you to prioritize yourself before others, to seek 'your truth' rather than the truth, and to see the future as grim and beyond your capacity to do anything about it."

"Mr. Trump still has nearly three full years in office. Winter isn’t close to being over, and Canada has to prepare for the possibility of sub-zero temperatures until at least 2029. But the weather will become milder, eventually. Eventually may have moved a bit closer."

"Perhaps Americans would adjust, and American culture would adjust in turn. Maybe people would become more interested in and fulfilled by leisure, art, and other activities. But it’s hard to imagine social capital being divorced from actual capital."

"What many parents may not appreciate, Dr. Montague says, is that the content on social media and texting apps is a mere signal of belonging. It cannot fulfill a child’s need for in-person interactions and relationships. Instead, it represents a kind of “skeletal” version of a real social life..."