Kissing could have begun as a way of sniffing out who's who. From a whiff to a kiss was just a short trip across the face.

Over the last few millennia we've invented a series of technologies - from the alphabet to the scroll to the codex, the printing press, photography, the computer, the smartphone - that have made it progressively easier and easier for us to externalize our memories, for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.

Back when I lived in Brooklyn, I'd sometimes take the Q train all the way out to Coney Island and back, and work on my laptop. There's something about pushy New Yorkers looking over your shoulder that really makes you produce sentences.

What makes things memorable is that they are meaningful, significant, colorful.

Invented languages have often been created in tandem with entire invented universes, and most conlangers come to their craft by way of fantasy and science fiction.

When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend.

Our lives are the sum of our memories. How much are we willing to lose from our already short lives by … not paying attention?