Sometimes thinking is a bad idea.

It turns out that “Just Do It” is more than a marketing slogan. Read this piece to hear about how “unthinking” is “the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation.” Everyone is familiar with the concept of overthinking things, whether it’s golf or writing a simple email or maybe even creating something in your kitchen. I heard a lot about “muscle memory” as a baseball player. If you practice something enough, you won’t have to think about the step-by-step process when it matters most. Evidently, there’s a lot to that.

NON COGITO, ERGO SUM – The Economist

Am I adorkable for loving words?

The internet has been creating words – have you noticed? Read this blog entry about Collins Dictionary’s gimmicky poll to add a new word to its dictionary based on votes coming from Twitter. Some of the internet-specific terms you may have heard of: duckface, nomakeupselfie (would using a few caps make that easier to read?), and vaguebooking. If you’re not familiar with those terms, or even if you are, read the article to learn about them and a few others.

One note: the writer says that “lexicographers should be logging the words people actually use, not the ones they say they like.” I agree, although I will admit to using some of these words in an ironic way, not because they’re useful. For example, I would love to drop “adorkable” into a conversation with some 20-somethings to show them how pathetically aware I am of stupid pop culture, if only to mock them.

Internet lexicography – The Economist

“More than” does not equal “over.”

Here’s a new approach. When the Associated Press (AP) changes a rule – in this case, allowing “over” to equal “more than” – instead of thinking, “OK, I’ll adjust,” you consider starting a rebellion. That’s the idea the writer of this article toys with. He doesn’t want to accept their change, and I partly agree with him. One of the first things I learned years ago in the journalism field was that “over” could not be substituted for “more than” to indicate a greater numerical value. And AP’s reasoning was based on “common usage.” That’s a scary standard, I think.

What if the AP was Wrong About Style Changes? – Talent Zoo