Hurricane Sandy has caused untold destruction that New York City is just starting to recover from.

When the pressure’s on, can you improvise as well as David Letterman and Gawker have?

In situations like these, you’ll see inventiveness – from people sitting outside of closed Starbucks locations to use the WiFi to startups coming up with creative solutions to problems caused by the storms. Even late-night talk-show hosts got in on the act.

Now, granted, many associations won’t be put in this spot. But you might be inspired by a few examples of post-Sandy ingenuity. That and more in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Making the best from a bad situation: Hurricane Sandy hasn’t been making things easy for New Yorkers, but in some ways, it also encouraged creativity in unlikely places. For example, late-night television and online publications. Both were forced to remain inventive even as the storm kept their staffs and audiences at home. What’s your backup plan? When the pressure’s on, can you improvise as well as David Letterman and Gawker have?

Work isn’t just where you go: On her blog, Kivi Leroux Miller points out an infographic that shows that work is no longer confined to a single space. This dovetails nicely into a separate study by U.K. retailer Pixmania, which recently found that smartphones tend to increase British office workers’ schedules by nearly two hours. Are you finding your smartphone is starting to affect your work-life balance?

Lifelong education’s value: “It’s a tragic fact that most of us know only how to be taught; we haven’t learned how to learn.” This quote, from Malcolm Knowles, pinpoints the mode of operation that Jeff Cobb of Mission to Learn has taken in his career. Deirdre Reid explains the lessons she gained from a recent webinar that Cobb hosted.

What value do you put in long-term learning? Let us know in the comments.

(YouTube screenshot/CBS)