Sublime

A biographer of the novelist E. M. Forster wrote, “To speak to him was to be seduced by an inverse charisma, a sense of being listened to with such intensity that you had to be your most honest, sharpest, and best self.” Imagine how good it would be to be that guy.

John Stilgoe, a professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the author of several books, including Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places. Stilgoe believes the power of acute observation is one of nature’s most useful learning tools.