I read just endlessly, ceaselessly, almost every book, it seems!
Samuel Johnson called it the vanity of human wishes, and Buddhists talk about the endless cycle of desire. Social psychologists say we get trapped on a hedonic treadmill. What they all mean is that we wish, plan and work for things that we think will make us happy, but when we finally get them, we aren't nearly as happy as we thought we'd be.
It's fun and super exciting to see how other people work, how other people write music, and how other people put things together. To me, it's an endless learning process, and I love doing it because everybody works so completely differently.
I was telling my manager that I wanted to quit the industry because the synopsis I was receiving from filmmakers all felt like a lie. Yes, they were heroine-centric... but the concepts were simple. Like a rape victim, her struggling against the odds and gaining revenge, or a wife who supports her husband endlessly, or a sacrificial mother.
I could suddenly see the pressures all around; these endless magazines and cheap reality TV programmes poking at women, humiliating us for every flaw. It makes me so angry. I really wonder what it is we are doing to ourselves, because I do think women can be the worst ones for picking each other apart.
It's a 'Doctor Who' budget. A BBC budget, although a very good one. But you know you can't do dinosaurs endlessly for 45 minutes, so there has to be a big ‘other' story going on.
It's difficult to feel as though you are truly being effective at work. Many of us feel trapped in endless meetings, with barely any time to grab lunch, let alone do any work. Overarching strategies and key priorities seem completely divorced from the day-to-day tactics.