Pretty popular piece these days,  but it is really worth reading. It's good for a whole lot of reasons I'd not expected. When I read the title, I thought would be just hype.

And here:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet

Great post in Derek's blog.

"When you're surrounded by successful people, it feels so easy, it's obvious. Their attitude and actions rub off on you.

But I meet so many people that feel that success is so far away, so impossible to imagine, that they act accordingly, aim low, and complete the self-defeating circle.

I know much of success is luck, but I never realized how much the mindset of success comes from who you know.

Luckily, who you know is up to you, not luck."

I posted this in a Mastermind I'm part of sometime ago. I guess it's useful here too. --

Let's say a friend comes to you and say: "Dude, there's this new restaurant in town, pretty sweet, you should check it out." Ok, cut. Flash forward. You visit the restaurant and it's the most awesome-cool-amazing thing that you are aware of in the past century. Nice, huh?

Another friend comes to you and say: "Hey, just found the most coolawesome theater that I've ever seen! It's comfortable, full of nice people, etc etc. Man, you must check it out, like, today. Are you going today? No? Go tomorrow. Please, you need to see that". Cut, flash forward. You visit the theather and it's just a slightly cool theather.

Hmm... there's a problem here.

"Language rules the world. Fates of nations and empires rest soundly upon the word, and the written word reigns above them all. Becoming a better writer means becoming a better thinker. It means advancing your career prospects. And -- most importantly -- it gives you a way to connect with yourself and others in a monumentally creative fashion.

Today's deal puts you on a path to mastering prose with a personal session and writing workshop with Vasily Andreev.

Writing workshops can be quite expensive for people to attend, and opportunities to get free critiques on their writing can be difficult once you're outside of the academic world. How many of us are surrounded by authors and scholars?

And yet, being able to write better can change your life.