Joshua Rothman

We think we need space to be creative—but that might have it exactly backward.

The judgments we use to elevate our lives can also hem them in.

In Karl Ove Knausgaard’s new cycle of novels, old mysteries reassert themselves.

In “The Score,” the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen argues that play is the meaning of life.

To feel mentally alive, you have to do more than defeat distraction.

The narrative of boom and bust is familiar—but also out of step with the possibilities of a new technology.

Stupidity is eternal—and more complex than we think.