Videogame producers utilize music to keep you engaged, increase your achievement, and give you the energy to make it to the next level. So maybe you just found your ideal work soundtrack. (Up until now, this newsletter was being typed to the tunes of Zelda. I’m kicking it up to Call of Duty for the next few items.)

+ Aside from being entertained by the brothels and beheadings, how does George R.R. Martin stay focused when he’s writing Game of Thrones? “I actually have two computers: I have the computer that I browse the Internet with that I get my email on, that I do my taxes on. And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine not connected to the Internet.”