I've been writing since before I could write. As a kid, I dictated stories to my parents. About 12 years ago, I was living in New York City and pursuing a master's degree in creative writing. For years I'd been suffering vision disorder, but in New York my symptoms worsened. I became unable to read or write for any considerable length of time. I tried vision therapy, an overhead projector, a special pair of glasses — all in vain.

Eventually, I discovered a computer program for the visually challenged. As I typed, my words were read aloud by an automated voice. With my screen dimmed (变模糊) to black, I relied entirely on the automated voice to know what I had written.

Facing the blank page is worrying, but facing the black page is worse. The dark screen is a sinkhole that swallows creative hope. Sentences disappear into it like an astronaut into a black hole. I managed to complete

my master's degree, but it took me years to adapt to my new reality. The greatest barrier seemed to be the automated voice, which was like a robot parrot on my shoulder, and I wanted nothing more than to drive it away. If a pianist were forced to practice on an untuned piano, would it corrupt his ear over time?

Of course, I could have quit writing and stopped making myself suffer. But it honestly never occurred to me—and I'm glad it didn't. Last year, after I told my story on the radio, I was contacted by VocaliD, a Massachusetts-based company that created a voice modeled on my own.

The first time I heard the voice they created, it is so close to my own that the two are nearly indistinguishable. I've only just begun using this new voice. My hope is that this will restore a sense of solitude (孤独) to my writing process, allowing me easier access to that inner space where the imagination can take over, and I can forget myself, and the real work can begin.

The black screen still exists — it always will — but the robot parrot has taken wing.

As to psychological well-being, the comfort zone is frequently perceived as a haven, a familiar location where individuals feel calm and peaceful. Pushing beyond this psychological state might have benefits. 

The comfort zone can be understood as a behavioral metaphor. Within a comfort zone, an individual takes on a state of minimal anxiety without a perception of risk, responding predictably to deliver a consistent level of performance. These include behaviors that people do commonly, find relaxing, or that take them away from high-stress situations. Engaging in the same manner over time leads to a predictable and familiar zone of comfort. As creatures of habit, we become dependent on these routines that we know we can complete well to feel secure. However, by stepping outside of our comfort zone, we learn about our ability to handle new situations and control risks, leading to greater self-confidence, and lower levels of anxiety. 

One study found that individuals who are more secure in stepping out of their comfort zone are more likely to be excited by and look forward to new experiences, feeling greater confidence in their ability to take them on. 

One behavior that demonstrates the benefits of stepping out of a comfort zone is learning to play a musical instrument. When we consider actions outside of our comfort zone, we must assess our desire to engage in that activity. By weighing the pros and cons, we evaluate how uncomfortable a situation may seem, and whether the danger of entering such an unknown situation will be worth the risk. 

Music offers a safe way to step out of your initial comfort zone because you can begin by practicing in an isolated setting, which offers a casual, safe way to build a new skill set. By picking up and practicing a new instrument, you have proven to yourself that you are capable of meeting an unfamiliar objective, thus decreasing anxiety.

Plastic, a durable material, is probably the definitive 20th century "mod-con". It has proved attractive to consumers and manufacturers. But the tide, now packed with an additional 8 million tons of plastic entering the oceans annually, is slowly turning.

The scale of the environmental problem with plastic waste is astonishing More than 6. 3 billion tons of plastic waste has been produced since the 1950s, more than half of which was produced in the past 16 years, and plastic production is expected to double again in the next 20 years. Despite higher recycling rates, large amounts of plastic leak into the environment. Estimates suggest there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050 and there is evidence that it is present throughout the human food chain. An ecologically and technologically superior replacement for many uses of plastic is long overdue.

Consumers have become keen recyclers. Yet this is not as good an outcome as it seems. Even when plastics are recyclable and put in a recycling bin, the majority still ends up in landfill, causing huge emission problems, or ends up in the sea.

Recycling is a complex, expensive, low-profit business. It is made harder because, although 95 per cent of people in the US and EU markets recycle, only about 30 per cent recycle carefully enough for it to be usable.

Nevertheless, growing demand for alternatives to plastic is running ahead of the scientific breakthroughs. These are needed to ensure the environmental impact of replacing it is a net positive. One popular proposal—using paper instead of plastic if possible—however could exacerbates global warming, a more pressing problem.

Having turned consumers into keen recyclers, governments must ensure recycling work. This will require an internationally joined-up regulatory, environment that ensures manufacturers bear the cost of using non-recyclable or uneconomical materials.

Equally, consumers should continue to demand a circular plastic economy. This would be a world in which unnecessary and eco-unfriendly plastic is completely removed, all plastic packaging is 100 per cent reusable or recyclable. The waste must end.