I sent them all to ChatGPT 4o one by one and had it guess the books, this is how it did:
1. Anthony Trollope – I didn’t get this one.
2. Evelyn Waugh – Correct!
3. Henry James – Correct!
4. Graham Greene – I missed this, was thinking of the wrong tone.
5. W. Shakespeare (i) – Correct!
6. Samuel Richardson – Correct!
7. David Foster Wallace – I guessed Gaddis, but this makes perfect sense. Partial credit.
8. Marcel Proust – Correct!
9. Mrs. Gaskell – Correct!
10. Ian McEwan – Partial credit; I guessed Atonement after Henry James.
11. E. M. Forster – Correct!
12. Cormac McCarthy – Correct!
13. P. G. Wodehouse – Correct!
14. Alan Bennett – I guessed Chekhov/Osborne, so I missed this.
15. Jane Austen – Correct!
16. Dan Brown – Correct!
17. Agatha Christie – Correct!
18. Zadie Smith – Missed this one.
19. W. Shakespeare (ii) – Correct!
20. Iris Murdoch – Correct!
21. Ernest Hemingway – Correct!
22. John Banville – Correct!
23. Harold Pinter – Correct!
24. F. Scott Fitzgerald – Correct!
25. Tennessee Williams – Correct!
26. Oscar Wilde – Correct!
27. D. H. Lawrence – Correct!
28. Thomas Hardy – Correct!
29. Virginia Woolf – Missed this one, was thinking of Galsworthy.
30. Tom Stoppard – Correct!
Final score: 25/30 with a couple of partial credits. Not bad!
This may not be a popular answer, but the truth is, this is a self-confirming story that gets stronger each time you tell it to yourself.
You can prove this to yourself.
Tomorrow, when you go to work, check in at regular intervals and ask yourself, “What’s wrong with what’s happening?”
Usually, the answer will be something like “It’s pointless,” “It’s tedious,” “I’d rather be doing X than Y,” or “I’m tired.” Short of your work causing you physical harm, it doesn’t matter what the answer is.
Look into why you answered that with as much detachment as possible. Ask yourself questions like, “Is the thing I’m doing inherently unpleasant? Is it hated by everyone who does it? Is it possible that if I dropped the contextual story around what I’m doing, it’s actually about the same as doing anything else?”
You will find that the misery comes from comparing what you’re doing to some ideal that is just that—an imaginary idea that does not actually exist. It’s pretend. Stop comparing reality to pretend things. Take what you’re doing for what it is. Your mind is not going to love doing this because it thrives on resistance to what is. That’s fine; just recognize that and keep investigating what’s happening.
Keep doing this until you realize that you’re creating your own hell and that you can also escape it with just a few creative adjustments to the story you’re telling yourself.
Moving places or changing jobs won’t fix it. Working less or more won’t fix it. Having a more meaningful job won’t fix it. Having no job won’t fix it.
This is not complacency—change can and will happen, but it’s not going to happen until you’re content with what you’re doing now. Good change comes as a result of accepting what’s real now. Good change doesn’t come from escaping what you’re doing now for some pretend ideal.
I've never used BeeRef or PureRef but if you're on the latest version of OS X and don't need cross platform compatibility, Apple's new app Freeform seems to overlap in functionality with Bee/PureRef quite a bit.
1. Anthony Trollope – I didn’t get this one. 2. Evelyn Waugh – Correct! 3. Henry James – Correct! 4. Graham Greene – I missed this, was thinking of the wrong tone. 5. W. Shakespeare (i) – Correct! 6. Samuel Richardson – Correct! 7. David Foster Wallace – I guessed Gaddis, but this makes perfect sense. Partial credit. 8. Marcel Proust – Correct! 9. Mrs. Gaskell – Correct! 10. Ian McEwan – Partial credit; I guessed Atonement after Henry James. 11. E. M. Forster – Correct! 12. Cormac McCarthy – Correct! 13. P. G. Wodehouse – Correct! 14. Alan Bennett – I guessed Chekhov/Osborne, so I missed this. 15. Jane Austen – Correct! 16. Dan Brown – Correct! 17. Agatha Christie – Correct! 18. Zadie Smith – Missed this one. 19. W. Shakespeare (ii) – Correct! 20. Iris Murdoch – Correct! 21. Ernest Hemingway – Correct! 22. John Banville – Correct! 23. Harold Pinter – Correct! 24. F. Scott Fitzgerald – Correct! 25. Tennessee Williams – Correct! 26. Oscar Wilde – Correct! 27. D. H. Lawrence – Correct! 28. Thomas Hardy – Correct! 29. Virginia Woolf – Missed this one, was thinking of Galsworthy. 30. Tom Stoppard – Correct!
Final score: 25/30 with a couple of partial credits. Not bad!