shenanigans and such

Improvise Like a Jazz Musician

Or: Everything I Need to Know About Productivity I learned from Charles Mingus

You don’t think of Charles Mingus‘ autobiography Beneath the Underdog as a productivity book, and it’s not, really.  Mingus was one of Jazz’s great composers, as well as a great bass player.  Plagued by depression, Mingus invested himself heavily in psychotherapy, and Beneath the Underdog is a kind of reflection on his life and music through the filter of his therapy.

But Mingus had a kind of wisdom in…