After all, what matters is to look back and smile. It is analyzing the work and judging it, if not good, fair. And to see that the intention was not corrupted, and that we did not run away from what had to be done, and that it was done. If the work done now displeases, if it does not fit in with today, that is also good, because change is good and it is good to learn. All that matters is to look back and smile.
With Thermometers Hovering Around Forty Degrees…
With thermometers hovering around forty degrees, it’s hard to decide to write, or study, or anything else instead of sending ardent supplications to God to burn it all down and end this world once and for all. Spring, spring… oh, you hateful thing! And even if one seeks inspiration to overcome the agonizing thermal sensation, it does not come, because one must first take another shower, drink more and more water, rest in the hope that the body will cool down and then it will be possible to think again. Perhaps that is why it has been said many times that, in order to flourish, the intellectual should settle in a temperate climate. The tropical is his enemy, as it accentuates his sensations and pushes him to… Flourish, God, flourish! Get out of these lines, intrusive verb…
A Personal Purpose
All truly serious study must have a personal purpose. The student, therefore, must first of all be able to define what he is looking for in the study, and how he expects it to impact his intellectual trajectory. This is equivalent to saying that serious study must be based on a genuine, personal interest, the greater the distance from which, the more useless the result of the study itself. It is true that one cannot predict how fruitful it will be, nor what paths it will lead to, because, in short, these will be part of the answers that will come to what one is looking for; but, in short, when one is not looking for anything, one cannot evaluate what one has achieved.
Vary the Style
If not necessary, it is at least healthy for the writer to periodically vary the style, format and genre to which he shapes his ideas. This is the case for countless reasons, starting with how stimulating it is to do so, and also with the gradual awareness of the expressive possibilities that are never exhausted. More than that: in this exercise, one discovers that there are more suitable places for ideas and ideas, and one avoids having to mix them all up—because they will certainly come varied in the creative mind—in a single format. The best thing, then, is to vary like Voltaire; and it is good for the writer to keep this in mind if he does not do it spontaneously.