This Is a Talk for Tired People (Luz Bratcher): readings and other resources

Resources mentioned in the presentation

• Comer, John Marc. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Waterbrook,  2019
  (speaker’s note:  worth reading even if you don’t swing this way spiritually)
• “Hurry Slowly with Jocelyn K Glei.” Hurry Slowly
  (speaker’s note:  Dig into the archives, it’s all so good)
• Merton, Thomas. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image,  1968
• Vuković, Kristin. “Dalmatia’s fjaka state of mind,” BBC Travel,  19 Jan 2018

Additional Resources (not mentioned, but influential in developing this talk)

• • You Need a Budget
    • How did I save up for a sabbatical? You Need a Budget is the first budgeting strategy that stuck in our house and was able to help us financially prepare for 3 months without salary. Talking about money makes me really anxious, but this has been instrumental in helping give us an accurate look at what is fiscally “enough” for us. Cannot say enough good things about this product.
  • Newport, Cal. Deep Work, Grand Central Publishing, 2016
    • This book was foundational in learning how to manage my creative output in an effective and restful way. I recommend this to every tech worker trying to figure out what their pace of good work looks like.
  • May, Katherine. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Riverhead Books, 2020

 

• A must-read for anyone going through a season of restlessness. This memoir got me through the literal dark winter of the Pacific Northwest and the metaphorical winter of the pandemic. I couldn’t work this quote into the talk, but there’s a great quote in here from a friend of hers. She was given a word of relief from a doctor on how to live with bipolar disorder that’s been helpful with my own diagnosis and energy management: 

• “Nobody had ever said to me before, ‘You need to live a life that you can cope with, not the one that other people want. Start saying no. Just do one thing a day. No more than two social events in a week.’ I owe my life to him.”

 

• • Odell, Jenny. How to Do Nothing, Melville House,  2019

 

• I’m just starting this one and she is a restful kindred spirit.

 

• Zomorodi, Manoush. Bored and Brilliant, St. Martin’s Press,  2017
• Zomorodi, Manoush. “Note to Self,” WNYC Studios
  • I am so grateful to Manoush and the work she did on Note to Self  in introducing me to the concept of the attention economy and changing my career direction by planting some important questions about our relationship to emerging technology. This book is on the wisdom of boredom.
• “Walking the Beat in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Where A New Day Began Together,” NPR, 11 Mar. 2016
  • I had to cut this story, but one of the most powerful pictures of rest as resistance is this one from children’s television presenter, Mr. Rogers, and the friend he invited to portray a black police officer. Listen with tissues nearby.
• Hersey, Tricia. The Nap Ministry, 2016
  • whose actual tagline is “Rest is Resistance.” Follow everything they produce.

Additional Resources (mentioned by the conference audience)

• Burkeman, Oliver. “Four Thousand Weeks:  Time Management for Mortals.”  Farrar, Straus and Giroux,  2021
• Tolle, Eckhart. “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.” New World Library, 2010
• Whyte, David. “Midlife and the Great Unkown.” Sounds True,  2003