I have learned this: if you knock at the door long enough, two things
will happen. First, your knuckles toughen up, and then the door across
the street opens. You had better be ready to make a mad dash across the
street, even if you drop your bags. - Gary North
%
You can't change the wind, but you can trim your sails. - Unknown
%
Knowledge is knowing a street is one way.
Wisdom is still looking in both directions.
 - dubious9, Slashdot
%
Trying is the simplest thing, what's stopping you? - Massimo Matassoni
%
We survived like cockroaches through the dot-bomb nuclear winter.
Now we're bigger, more robust. ... In fact, we have grown wings.
 - Marc Fleury, JBoss
%
There is no way to slice up the organic unity that we are
and say, without qualification, "This part determines that".
This sort of causality simply doesn't exist in the organism.
 - Steve Talbott, NetFuture
%
Resist the urge to hurry; it will only slow you down.
 - Bruce Eckel
%
You should maybe understand that some years ago I put the suit
my mother bought me into the fireplace along with all my ties.
If a restaurant requires a suit and tie, I just don't go there,
it is not for the likes of me. - Hans Reiser
%
You can't get what you want till you know what you want.
 - Joe Jackson
%
We don't know what happens when we die,
we only know we die too soon. - Joe Jackson
%
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
either way you're right. - Henry Ford
%
If you really feel that being a programmer makes you part of an elite
and you want to keep others out of that elite, I pity you.
 - Guido Van Rossum
%
We cannot achieve efficiency by aiming for it, but only by being as
clearly focused on our goals as we can possibly be.  At the same time,
such a focus will always lead us to do things that look inefficient to
a more narrowly calculating mentality. - Steve Talbott, NetFuture
%
And if they fall into your arms
You'll be surprised to find
The weight that you can bear
 - Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout, Andromeda Heights, Life's A Miracle)
%
Set the challenge too high and anxiety results.
Set them too low and boredom sets in.
Flow happens when skills grow in mastery over rising challenges.
 - Doc Searls, SuitWatch
%
Aki:  I don't know how much time I have left.
Gary: Who does?
 - "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" movie
%
I know, no one's gonna show me everything
We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone
 - Joni Mitchell, Hejira, 1976
%
If we were willing to withhold our projections and open ourselves to
the Eternal Surprise of the universe, its biggest surprise might be
the knowledge that we truly do belong - and that our belonging
doesn't depend on simplistic, machine-influenced thinking.
 - Steve Talbott, NetFuture, June 2004
%
Pressure is something that you choose to embrace in your life or not.
Pressure is drama, and doesn't really interest me in my everyday life.
 - Julia Roberts
%
Laugh. But you too are going to sound like and old fart one day.
And the respect you show or don't show for those that came before you
is going to be what you instill in those that come after you.
 - EvilTwinSkippy, Slashdot, June 2004
%
"Mind like water" doesn't mean you should try to configure the ripples.
 - Christoph Vorwerk, August 2004
%
Godel's incompleteness theorem states that a powerful enough system
cannot prove its own consistency. This implies that you can make any
number of proofs that are valid within your system, but you can never
know if the system itself is valid. Or, as I like to say, the only
thing you know for sure is that you never know anything for sure.
Of course, the incompleteness theorem itself is derived by a system of
which the validity is unknown... - RAMMS+EIN, Slashdot, January 2005
%
Kids never liked rules anyway, and that's all we are - kids.
 - Natasha M. Chen, 1992
%
Somebody has to go first, and be willing to accept the consequences.
To dream the impossible dream, because it's only impossible so long
as everybody still thinks they're the only one who has that dream.
 - Phillip J. Eby, dirtSimple.org, January 2005
%
How can I in five minutes shift a lifetime's hidden pain?
 - Julia Fordham, Girlfriend, Porcelain, 1989
%
I went to see a psychic and I paid for good advice
He said "Forget a romance 'til you've sorted out your life.
Be your own mother and your father and your sister and brother,
And even try to crack the art of being your own lover..."
 - Julia Fordham, Girlfriend, Porcelain, 1989
%
Confidence is easy, if you ignore enough of what's around you.
 - Arthur J. Siegel, April 2005
%
When I thought life had some purpose - Then I thought I had some choice
  (I was running blind)
And I made some value judgments - In a self-important voice
  (I was outa line)
But then absurdity came over me - And I longed to lose control
  (into no mind)
Oh all I ever wanted - Was just to come in from the cold
 - Joni Mitchell, Come in from the cold, Night Ride Home, 1991
%
Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer
To a question I can't ask
 - Norah Jones, Nightingale, Come Away with Me, 2001
%
Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
 - AccUser on Slashdot, July 2005
%
I find that after this mid-life crisis-of sorts, I'm letting life
guide me. For once I am not whipping the horse of life. I am letting
the horse take me. And it's beautiful to let go.
 - Paula Cole, March 2005
%
Over the endless troubles, over the trying times
These are the words of wisdom from a restless mind
Don't push the river, don't push the river
Don't push the river, let it carry you
 - Julia Fordham, River, Falling Forward, 1994
%
Just because the kernel sends you a heap of worry, fear, anger, or other
crap on sys.stdin doesn't mean you have to send it on to sys.stdout.
 - Phillip J. Eby, dirtSimple.org, August 2005
%
How much of what we are should we be proud of? When did we choose the
things that made us smart, knowledgeable, or successful? Should we be
proud? Should we feel superior? Maybe we should just be grateful.
 - jgoldblog, May 2002
%
Intelligence tells us we're smart. Wisdom tells us we're not.
 - jgoldblog, May 2002
%
...I sometimes think it would be nice to be a Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson
but like Rome, it's probably a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want
to live there. - jgoldblog, May 2002
%
In the end, guys, you're just as driven by emotions as women.
Trust us... testosterone SO does not enhance your powers of reason.
 - Kathy Sierra, July 2005
%
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
 - Joni Mitchell, Both sides now, Clouds, 1969
%
Lao Tzu suggested a solution to life's clutter: "Just remain
in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there."
These days, with all the racket, that's a lot easier said
than done. - Joe Nickell, October 2005
%
It ain't what we don't know that gives us trouble,
it's what we know that ain't so. - Will Rogers
%
Fast, cheap, good: pick two. - Unknown
%
def postOptions(self):
    if self['fast'] and self['good'] and self['cheap']:
        raise usage.UsageError, "can't have it all, brother"
 - Twisted Matrix docs, 2005
%
We don't know what the future needs of us,
we don't even know what we need of the past.
 - Rich Gibson, November 2005
%
Remember what I said back then: if you decide that what I'm saying
is something that you already know, you are throwing away your chance
to learn something new. - Phillip J. Eby, November 2005
%
I can feel your fingers - Feeling my face
There are some lines you put there - And some you erase
 - Joni Mitchell, Offnight Backstreet, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, 1977
%
To choose the policy over your users' needs in this case is like
choosing to eat the restaurant's menu because the food in the
pictures is more neatly arranged than the food on your plate. :)
-- Phillip J. Eby, November 2005
%
How do we "make poverty history"? We make naivety history.
We make ignorance of the forces manipulating the world history.
We make ignorance of their agenda history. Without that,
nothing can change. - David Icke, November 2005
%
This is why I don't own a TiVo or satellite TV; they'd make
the time-munching TV monster stronger, and as an added insult
we'd get to pay for it. - Andrew Kuchling, November 2005
%
Life [...] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing. - William Shakespeare, MacBeth
Life is like the chicken ladder: short and full of shit. - Anonymous
%
Appropriate self-delusion isn't just a good idea, it's
pretty much a necessity for actually accomplishing anything!
 - Phillip J. Eby, December 2005
%
Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them
. It's like having a vacuum cleaner hooked up to your imagination. All your
initial ideas get sucked out immediately, and you don't have any more, and
yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking. - Paul Graham, December 2005
%
Sometimes recognising that you are an idiot is the first crucial step
to no longer being one. - David Icke, December 2005
%
How we live; how we invest our limited capital of time, energy, interest
and capabilities, is surely more important than how we invest our money;
and look how much time, activity and newsprint is spent on that. Money
can be replaced. Once spent, our lives can not.
 - Carmine Coyote, January 2006
%
...you should prevent your beliefs about how things are from being
contaminated by how you wish they were. Most people let them mix
pretty promiscuously. The continuing popularity of religion is the
most visible index of that. - Paul Graham, January 2006
%
In high school she already wanted to be a doctor. And she is so ambitious
and determined that she overcame every obstacle along the way - including,
unfortunately, not liking it. Now she has a life chosen for her by
a high-school kid. - Paul Graham, January 2006
%
If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you know
what work you love, you're practically there. - Paul Graham, January 2006
%
If you're in a job that feels safe, you are not going to get rich,
because if there is no danger there is almost certainly no leverage.
 - Paul Graham, May 2004
%
The simplest way to get past a culture of uncivilized disregard for the
human being in the workplace is the oldest: treat others as you want to
be treated yourself. Can you be trusted to do a fair day's work for your
salary? Of course you can. So why can't you trust others to be like you?
 - Carmine Coyote, February 2006
%
To *wait*, to *think*, to *consider alternatives* and *allow the true
facts to show themselves*; these are marks of maturity and wisdom.
Only a fool rushes towards the cliff edge when a little patience might
have shown him how to avoid it. - Carmine Coyote, February 2006
%
If you think of "you" (your conscious mind) as the rider and "yourself"
(the unconscious and your body) as the horse, then feelings are the
reins and spurs and saddle. - Phillip J. Eby, February 2006
%
More than 2000 years ago, the Buddha recognized that "attachment" --
clinging to the way you want things to be and ignoring the reality of how
they really are - is the major cause of pain and suffering in the world.
His solution is still the only one that works. You must let them go.
 - Carmine Coyote, March 2006
%
The past is over. Letting go is the essential key to change that sticks.
Don't fight. Don't struggle. Don't blame yourself or feel guilt. However
often the old habits trip you up, just acknowledge that it happened again
and let it go. Return to your desired change.
 - Carmine Coyote, March 2006
%
It's amazing how often people block their future growth and development
by focusing only on what they expected, not what is actually coming
into being. - Carmine Coyote, March 2006
%
Skepticism is medicine for bad thinking. True, it sometimes tastes bad,
but it's still the best cure for unforced errors.
 - Carmine Coyote, March 2006
%
It doesn't matter that you know what it's called. Can you do it? Have you
done it? Are you doing it? [...] You can manipulate the symbols all you
want, and reality will just laugh at you. And all the while, your real
life is passing you by. - Phillip J. Eby, March 2006
%
Fear is the prison, its absence is the key. What we need is the under-
standing and the will to change the reality that manifests as control
and suppression, and this can never be done while we are imprisoned by
fear. Freedom from fear is freedom itself. - David Icke, March 2006
%
How can I change the world if I can't change myself?
Try again tomorrow...
 - Todd Rundgren, Change Myself, 2nd Wind, 1991
%
The journey really is all you get. The journey isn't everything,
it's the only thing. - Phillip J. Eby, April 2006
%
The fact that there is always a positive side to life is the one thing
that gives me a lot of happiness. This world is not perfect. There are
problems. But things like happiness and unhappiness are relative.
Realizing this gives you hope. - Dalai Lama
%
Be the change that you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi
%
Time is precious, non-replaceable and always slipping through your
fingers. Money, in comparison, is cheap and plentiful. Cutting time
to produce money is crushing flawless diamonds to make sandpaper.
 - Carmine Coyote, April 2006
%
We have discovered the greatest loophole of all: evolution has tried
to coerce us into procreation by attaching great pleasure to the act
of mating, and we've figured out how to couple up and get the goods
while ignoring the "intent" of sex. - Matthew Baldwin, April 2006
%
In the "A Bicentennial Man" film of a robot's search to become more
human, we feel more strongly the precious gift of our own humanity.
That is all we can ask of any work of art.
 - Austin C. Beeman, December 2001
%
Unwilful untruth is just ignorance and is to be overcome, like a river
in one's path or a sore muscle. Wilful untruth is the telling of lies;
it should be fought with passion and without mercy, ripped flesh from
bones and left to rot in the cold light of day.
 - Tim Bray, January 2005
%
If surfing the extensive network of Debra Lafave-infatuated websites and
chat rooms provides any indication of how American men feel about Debra
Lafave having sex with her student, the feelings of American men can be
summed up in one, rather simple, collective thought: "Where was Debra
Lafave when I was in junior high school?" - David Steinberg, January 2006
%
No ice cream until you eat your vegetables... and mop the floor, write a
book, put up the hurricane shutters, add wsgiref to the Python standard
library, do the bookkeeping, get rich, and save the world, you lazy
bastard! - Phillip J. Eby, May 2006
%
To paraphrase an old saying, there is no problem so big that it cannot
be ignored. And sometimes, that is precisely the best solution.
 - Phillip J. Eby, May 2006
%
Integrity, honesty, compassion, loyalty and just plain telling it like it
is. [...] You always knew where you stood with Bob. Politically correct?
That wasn't a big concern of his. He wasn't trying to win a popularity
contest. Letting you know how he felt was a big concern of his.
 - Ed Howard, eulogy for Bob Berg, December 2002
%
Both the hummingbird and the shrew conduct their lives at a frantic pace,
but neither lives much more than 12 months as a result. Elephants are slow
and live for many decades. Giant tortoises are even slower and live for
centuries. There seems to be some inevitable link between the pace of life
and its length. - Carmine Coyote, June 2006
%
An unsigned 32-bit integer is enough to count all the seconds
in your life. (Even a *signed* one, if you're not lucky.)
 - Nicola Larosa, June 2006
Un intero senza segno a 32 bit basta per contare tutti i secondi
nella tua vita. (Anche uno *con* segno, se sei sfortunato.)
 - Nicola Larosa, Giugno 2006
%
Expertise is like love: not only is it unlimited, you destroy it
only by not giving it away. - David Maister, October 2001
%
Law enforcement so often attracts the wrong people because of the power
that goes with it. If you are imbalanced enough to seek power over others
then law enforcement must look very attractive. You don't have to be int-
elligent, nor honest, nor fair. You just need to wear the right clothes.
 - David Icke, May 2006
%
The arrival of a newborn switches you in 24 hours from a normal human
being to a shuffling sleep-deprived zombie. - Tim Bray, June 2006
%
Watch the woman's hands, as she talks to the man
As he talks down to her, as he tells her
He doesn't understand, he doesn't see the fisted hands
Clenched tightly, angrily
 - Paula Cole, Watch the Woman's Hands, Harbinger, 1994
%
Like children, customers will eventually leave you. The ones that don't
just end up sleeping in, hanging around the house all day, eating all
of the food and drinking from the milk carton anyway. At some point,
you WANT to part ways. - Morgan Goeller, August 2006
%
If you only do what is easy or necessary, then what the hell are you
here for?  You're just killing time and taking up space - and you
know it. No wonder you feel bad! - Phillip J. Eby, August 2006
%
We're not here to have an easy life. We're not even here to do the things
that we have to do. We are here to do the things we choose to do, and
sometimes we choose to do them because they are challenging, not in spite
of it.  Would you keep playing a video game that was trivial to beat?
 - Phillip J. Eby, August 2006
%
The thing is, self-consciousness and despair are nouns. They
don't *move*. But love is a verb, and it makes things real.
 - Phillip J. Eby, August 2006
%
The compiler doesn't care if the person who forgot the curly brace
is wearing a black lace bra. - Kathy Sierra, August 2006
%
Love is a verb, and love conquers fear. The sensation of effort is a
measure of your unwillingness to accept the present moment. Accept your
fears and you will move past them. - Phillip J. Eby, August 2006
%
I've heard that some people have a saying: "Pain is weakness leaving the
body." If that's true, then fear is also weakness leaving the mind. So,
go ahead and do what you are afraid you can't. It is not the way to an
easy life, only a worthwhile one. - Phillip J. Eby, August 2006
%
Once more, with feeling: Technology changes how we do things. It doesn't
change what we do. Ain't no technology that's gonna do that for us. Wanna
better world? Be better people. - David M. Rogers, August 2006
%
Very little is actually impossible.
 - Samuel Reynolds, August 2006
%
Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once.
Lately it doesn't seem to be working. - Anonymous
%
Every man who has committed a rape, every man who has thought of committing
a rape, every man who commits sexual abuse, every man who sexually harass-
es, every man who tells stupid woman bashing jokes, every man who laughs
at those damn jokes, every man who breathes should have to go through a
rape kit exam, and have a nurse slam a couple of fingers up his ass with
no foreplay. THEN, they should have to sit and try to console their mother,
their sister, their wife, their DAUGHTER, while going through a rape kit
exam. - Lisa, July 2006
%
There's no gentle way to break somebody's heart
To say, it's over, it's time for us to part
 - Prefab Sprout, Love Will Find Someone for You,
   The Gunman and Other Stories, 2001
%
Yes, there are personal limits, usually physical but sometimes mental.
Rocket science is a restricted profession. But there are so many potent-
ial areas of progress in every person's life that there is no excuse
for not pushing these limits outward. - Gary North, October 2006
%
Just being alive, It can really hurt
And these moments given, Are a gift from time
Just let us try, To give these moments back 
To those we love, To those who will survive
 - Kate Bush, Moments Of Pleasure, Red Shoes, 1993
%
Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety
disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. [...] Lucky people are
more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just
what they are looking for. - Tim Ong, December 2006
%
[Lucky people] are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities,
make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-
fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient
attitude that transforms bad luck into good. - Tim Ong, December 2006
%
You see, whatever makes you flinch, makes you smaller. Less capable.
More doubtful. Your faith in yourself decreases, and your courage falters.
You attempt less, and you become less. - Phillip J. Eby, January 2007
%
Anyone who says their ambition is "to be famous" is a fragile ego desperate
for external recognition and for these people the Big Brother show can be a
devastating experience, not least with the constant fear of public "reject-
ion". Being voted out means "they don't love me" when the real problem is
that the celebs don't love themselves. - David Icke, January 2007
%
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood,
and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long
for the endless immensity of the sea. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
%
Our children bury us.  Most of us do not bury our children.
I know of no greater blessing in the modern world.
It is a blessing not known throughout most of man's history.
Be grateful for it.  We take it for granted.
 - Gary North, February 2007
%
I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up
the way you want, forge ahead. - Clint Eastwood
%
These three disciplines - writing, engineering, and artistry - are not
so different from one another. [...] When you're able to think easily
in all three modes one by one, you will soon find yourself thinking in
all three simultaneously. The writer, engineer and artist overlap and
merge, Voltron-style, to form The Designer. - Craig Cook, January 2007
%
Sure, lots of stuff made with samplers is rubbish. Lots of stuff made
with [Korg] Karmas will be rubbish. Lots of stuff made with screw-
drivers is rubbish. If you don't like this, take it up with the
universe. That's just how things work. - Daniel Rutter, March 2002
%
Gödel's conclusion is what matters:
you can't assume that something you can't prove is false,
and you can't assume that something that's true can be proved.
Let me oversimplify: Truth cannot be mechanized; deal with it.
 - Tim Bray, April 2007
%
What is this life if, full of care,
we have no time to stand and stare.
 - W.H. Davies, "Leisure"
%
If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen
to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever
written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf
and blind to something like that - then what else are we missing?
 - Gene Weingarten, April 2007
%
Time pressures are, like time itself, illusory, self-imposed. You either
have sufficient time to do something or you don't. Worrying about whether
you have enough time changes nothing. You can reduce the worry by not cre-
ating expectations (in others or in yourself), expectations that you have
enough time to do something when you don't. - Dave Pollard, August 2007
%
Fastidio e pessimismo per quelli che si svegliano la mattina pensando a
salvare il mondo! Il mondo non ha bisogno di essere salvato, al peggio
scatena un uragano degno di questo nome e ci spazzola via. Siamo noi
che avremmo bisogno di essere salvati. In primis da noi stessi.
 - Roberto A. Foglietta, Agosto 2007
%
We intuitively want to belong to community, not family, not city,
not country. [...] This is the way we lived, joyfully, lovingly,
for most of the millions of years before civilization.
How hard should it be now? - Dave Pollard, July 2007
%
"I don't know." Perhaps the three hardest words to say.
But perhaps also words we should be using more often.
 - Scott H. Young, August 2007
%
Part of healthy skepticism is removing the arrogance that comes from
a certainty you know what is right. With humility comes the ability
to change your course of action as new information arrives.
 - Scott H. Young, August 2007
%
We should take our cue from what happens when we fall in love: time
stops, goes away. We are there in the moment, and it lasts almost
forever. So the change over this infinite time is so gradual it is
no noticeable change at all. Love change, embrace it, slow it down,
make it last, and the stress disappears. - Dave Pollard, August 2007
%
I stopped eating meat, altough I still eat fish and have never called
myself a vegetarian. [...] I don't want to be called anything that
ends with -ian, except "musician"; of for that matter, anything that
ends with -ist, -ite, or -ive. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999
%
Ci hai fatto male, Franco, anche stavolta. Perché te ne sei andato
lavorando e facendo cose, pensando e agendo. Togliendoci un po'
di onnipotenza residua, stracciando l'illusione che lavorare
allontani la morte, suonando per noi "maturi" un campanello
d'allarme precoce. E il guaio è che hai avuto ragione troppe
volte, ed è evidente che ce l'hai anche stavolta.
 - Vittorio Zambardino, in memoria di Franco Carlini, 30 Agosto 2007
%
  How can I let the introvert in my life know
that I support him and respect his choice?
  First, recognize that it's not a choice.
It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.
  Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought,
don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"
  Third, don't say anything else, either.
 - Jonathan Rauch, March 2003
%
From now on I think I'll also wear a helmet when only cycling to work.
Now that I know how it is to slam your head on the street wearing a
helmet, I've lost interest finding out how it would be without.
 - Robert Staudinger, November 2007
%
It hurts a bit to hear someone you really love relating or demonstrating
delight received from another lover. But when you get past this, it's
utterly liberating, as if you have finally ridded yourself of the worst
vestige of our current society's terrible scarcity of love.
 - Dave Pollard, November 2007
%
L'idea del gioco come spazio ideale dell'ordine, dei buoni sentimenti,
della contesa corretta e gentile (il fair play) è sostanzialmente
scorretta, nella misura in cui sottovaluta e banalizza le potenzialità
dell'attività ludica. Quando giochiamo, c'è in gioco molto di più.
 - Fabio Paglieri, Settembre 2002
%
Giocare è un'attività naturale e universale.
Creare giochi è un'arte, complessa e raffinata.
 - Fabio Paglieri, Settembre 2002
%
Watch people at video games. You can't tear them away. More import-
antly, they truly are exercising their minds. They problem-solve.
They take notes, read books of hints and strategy. [...] And they
form social communities, sharing hints, tips, and methods.
 - Donald Norman, June 2001
%
People learn many things, if only they care about the topic.
People are hungry for learning, as long as it isn't called education.
Hence book groups, discussion groups, and clubs of all sorts.
 - Donald Norman, June 2001
%
[If] you are not a young man, you sense that your clock's spring is
running down. Ask not for whom the clock ticks. It ticks for you.
You can scream and you can yell, but it does no good to get ticked off.
 - Gary North, January 2008
%
"Reporter": Joss, why do you always write these strong woman characters?
Joss: Why are you even asking me this? [...] How is it possible that this
  is even a question? Honestly, seriously, [...] why aren't you asking
  another hundred guys why they *don't* write strong woman characters?
 - Joss Whedon, Equality Now speech, May 2006
%
Remember the Golden Rule? In case you've forgotten, it's "Treat others as
you would like to be treated." Or as Jesus put it, "Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you." Or in the words of Hillel, "What is hateful
to do, do not to your fellow man." Muhammad's take? "Hurt no one so that
no one may hurt you." And even Confucius say, "What you do not want
others to do to you, do not do to others." - Siona, Gaia.com Team
%
/Multitasking/, a definition: "The attempt by human beings to operate
like computers, often done with the assistance of computers." Productive?
Efficient? More like running up and down a beach repairing a row of sand
castles as the tide comes rolling in and the rain comes pouring down.
 - Walter Kirn, November 2007
%
Children need respect and deserve to be treated with dignity. All we
need to do is give children guidance when they need and ask for it and
to be able to listen respectfully when they feel like talking. We must
then trust them to do the rest. - Dustin Rivers, February 2008
%
It has always struck me odd that wild creatures on this planet look after
the needs of their community before their individual needs. This is nat-
ural to them. The 'dog-eat-dog' world is ours, not theirs! And gatherer-
hunter cultures even today live leisurely lives compared to ours, and
seem much happier with their natural way of living and making a living.
 - Dave Pollard, February 2008
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Polyamory practitioners have astonishing optimism for humans' endless
capacity to love, to share, to forgive, to grow, to explore. But that
optimism seems rooted in a cynical belief that the monogamous are stuck
in a myth, one that leads to cheating, unhappiness or divorce court.
 - Monica Hesse, February 2008
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[Sex] wasn't mysterious anymore, but it was *clear*, in the same way that
an awakening is clear - or whitewater rafting, or a forest at dusk, or
a lonely violin giving texture to the breaths of a silent crowd.
 - Infra, February 2008
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Just because they say you're crazy doesn't mean you're not crazy. Yes,
things that seem impossible can be great innovations. On the other hand,
they simply may be impossible. But on those rare occasions when you real-
ize that something nobody thinks can work really can work--well, on that
day, you just might change the world. - Joel Spolsky, February 2008
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The next time you see a homeless person, or an addict, don't be fright-
ened, angry, or filled with pathos. You are looking in the mirror.
It is we who are homeless, and addicted. What will it take before
we break the habit, walk away from The Man, and find our way home?
 - Dave Pollard, December 2004
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Just what is it that you do?
  I Draw The Circle.
And when will you be finished?
  I will be finished when I'm dead. And so will you.
  Anybody who tells you different is selling something.
 - William Tozier, March 2008
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It is not all that true that people tend to get less inventive and
creative as they get older [...]. What happens is that their previous
successes cause their interactivity levels to grow and, as a natural
consequence, their interruption rate to increase and their search/
creativity strategies to degrade. - Stefano Mazzocchi, April 2008
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Paying attention to productivity is a slippery slope. The system
efficiency addiction associated with saving time can become so compelling
that your process begins to control more of your time than your product.
 - Michael "Rands" Lopp, April 2008
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What do you do? I hate that question! I'm never sure what to answer,
because people expect to hear one thing. We're all multi-faceted,
and we are not our jobs. - Molly E. Holzschlag, 2008
%
I should be sleeping, but I watch this river, and somehow,
it empowers me.
 - Molly E. Holzschlag, Mighty Mississippi, April 2008
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Very smart adults often seem unusually innocent, and I don't think
this is a coincidence. I think they've deliberately avoided learning
about certain things. Certainly I do. I used to think I wanted to
know everything. Now I know I don't. - Paul Graham, May 2008
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R.F.: Hey, what's the matter?
W.D.H.: I'm sad because you're going to die.
R.F.: Yeah, that bugs me sometimes too. But not so much as you think.
  When you get as old as I am, you start to realize that you've told
  most of the good stuff you know to other people anyway.
 - Richard Feynman, W. Daniel Hillis, 1987
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Your Clock Time, that passes and is gone and fills you with regret
for what was or what might be or what should be or what might have
been, it is just an abstraction, a human artifact, designed to keep
you in thrall to the other humans who want you to be everybody-else,
obedient, fearful, helpless, dependent, full of grief.
 - Unique Chickadee to Dave Pollard, June 2008
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DESIGN:   not only function    - STORY:   not only argument
SYMPHONY: not only focus       - EMPATHY: not only logic
PLAY:     not only seriousness - MEANING: not only accumulation
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/aptitudes.jpg
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To leave out the fact that violent crime is a generally male mode
of expression, is not so much to ignore the Elephant in the room,
as to have incorporated its presence to such a degree that it is
now an intrinsic part of the decor. - Amanda Dean, June 2008
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Tell me, and I will forget;
show me, and I may remember;
involve me, and I will understand.
 - Confucius, 450 B.C.
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If you ask a naturally successful person what they'll do if they fail,
they'll start talking about what other great things they'll succeed at
instead. But meanwhile, if you ask a naturally struggling person what
will be great when they succeed, they'll talk about all the things
they won't have to do or feel anymore. - Phillip J. Eby, June 2008
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Try leaving your house one morning without instructions. Investigate.
Figure things out. Get on a bus and spend some time seeing out the
window. Life is interesting. Don't insult it by asking for a manual.
 - Ima Professoron on Techdirt, June 2008
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In countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more
difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate
it. I hope that, after reading the following pages, the leaders of the
YMCA will start a campaign to induce good young men to do nothing.
If so, I shall not have lived in vain. - Bertrand Russell, 1932
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I want to live in a forest near the sea, in harmony with the other crea-
tures in the community, where the food grows naturally and abundantly
without chemicals or irrigation. And I want to live most of my life
outdoors. I believe this is how we were meant to live. I don't want to
have to work hard to eat well. I don't want to work hard, /period/.
 - Dave Pollard, September 2008