Two quotes that struck me as I was reading Frank Herbert’s Chapterhouse: Dune. “I know a profound pattern humans deny with words even while their actions affirm it. They say they seek security and quiet, conditions they call peace.Even as they speak, they create seeds of turmoil and violence.” (9) “The person who takes the [...]
A couple of quotes from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead that I found quite poignant: “It is said that the worst thing one can do to a man is to kill his self-respect. But that’s not true. Self-respect is something that can’t be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man’s pretense at it.” (427) [...]
This was my first time voting in a voting booth (I voted via absentee ballot in 2004). It actually was quite a cinematic event. I pulled back the curtain, stepped inside the booth space, and pulled the lever all the way to the right. Then staring at the nominees’ names, I kept darting my eyes [...]
“We all face the Prisoner’s Dilemma whenever we interact with people we could take advantage of, or people who could take advantage of us, yet actually manage to trust one another often enough to accomplish things in groups. The shadow of the future makes it possible for me to act on your behalf today, even [...]
“Making a mark on the world is a common human desire. In response to mass-produced technology with no user-serviceable parts inside, we install ringtones and screensavers, as away to be able to change something about our inflexible tools.” [Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (New York: Penguin Press, 2008) 132.] Another poignant point [...]
Another great quote from Clay Shirky: “Life teaches us that motivations other than getting paid aren’t enough to add up to serious work.” [Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (New York: Penguin Press, 2008) 103.] Rings true to me, especially when I think about how I am following my passion and not the [...]
Here is a great quote by Merlin Mann, a software usability expert: “Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn’t take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that’s taller than you and heavier than you could [...]
Isn’t it scary how many bits of oneself are stored across the web? In an attempt to organize my data for various websites and services, I decided to gather all that info and store it together in a secure place. I have a login for at least 5 emails, a login for important things like [...]