Matthew's Blog
On Quiet Quitting
There's been quite a lot of discussion recently about "quiet quitting"—the act of doing the bare minimum of your assigned tasks and no more. Most of these discussions revolve around the balance between finding life-work balance vs. putting everything into your career...
Writing Research Can Be Fun!
In my writing research project about synesthesia, I realized my familiarity with the rainbow of colors is somewhat limited. Therefore, and strictly for "research" purposes (of course), I bought the biggest box of crayons I could find. Sometimes writing research is so...
One Thing I Disliked About EHRs
I write my rough drafts with a software called Scrivener. I like using it because they have an excellent tutorial system and user’s guide—all part of the initial package cost. They also have a blog and a podcast. Simple put, the software developers at Scrivener give...
Angry People
It must be difficult being angry all of the time. On social media so many people seem to be constantly angry. Every post is negative, every comment is bitter, every tweet is lashing out. I mean, some of these people seem wake up tweeting angry, tweet angrily multiple...
How Physics Tempers My Negative Emotional Reactions
Physics makes me think of several various philosophical problems. For example, “small” physics—quantum physics—makes me rethink my beliefs about causality and reality. But it’s “big” physics—cosmology—which makes me rethink my beliefs about time and existence, and...
Ought-Is Gaps and Valuing My Time
Like most people, I have a near-infinite number of ideas on how the world ought to be. But I prefer spending most of my time understanding the way the world is. Then, after I identify the ought-is gaps of interest to me, I go to the next step and consider which gaps I...
Aristotle, Habits, And Mindfulness
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle I believe in the truth of this quote. The development of good habits is the key to success in nearly every endeavor, whether it's in the domain of health, relationships, or...
Connecting With Olivier Messiaen
The novel I’m working on—The Raven Singularity—has a plot connection to the composer Olivier Messiaen. So to help inspire me during my writing sessions, I am now frequently listening to his music. It’s quite odd, really. Years ago, when I first heard Messiaen, I...
The Cursed Child as Business Inspiration
The other day I was fantasizing about my next trip to London. The last time I was there I stayed at my favorite hotel (the Covent Garden Hotel) and just around the corner from it “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child,” a sequel to the Harry Potter series, was (and still...