A week ago I attended the first annual Boston Book Festival.  It sounded fun and there was a superb lineup of speakers/authors.  While I didn’t get to attend every session my heart desired, I did sit in on three great ones that were not only informative but which left me, surprisingly, with a single realization that I’ve been pondering all week: few of the people I heard attained the goals they set out to achieve.

John Hodgman: John Hodgman wanted to be an author and, in fact, did end up an author, but only after publishing a single (but brilliant!) short story in the Paris Review, becoming a literary agent instead, appearing on The Daily Show, making a-bajillion ads for a computer company that shall remain nameless but is my favorite nonetheless, acting in movies and amassing a small army of slightly off-kilter but passionate followers.

Scout Tufankjian: American photojournalist Scout Tufankjian didn’t know … Read more »