“Smartass is a latent idiot.”
Source: Master of Stupidity
“Never ask anybody what is right and what is wrong. Life is an experiment to find out.
Each individual has to be conscious, alert, and watchful, and experiment with life and find out what is good for him. Whatever gives you peace, whatever makes you blissful, whatever gives you serenity, whatever brings you closer to existence and its immense harmony is good. And whatever creates conflict, misery, pain in you is wrong.”
“Vexed with herself, Cassandra took a handkerchief from the congealed pocket of her dress and pressed it hard over a new trickle of tears. After a minute or two had passed, she became aware of someone ascending the stairs in a measured tread.
Embarrassed to be caught crying on the steps like a lost child, Cassandra struggled to rise.
A low voice stopped her. "No... please. I only wanted to give you this."
Through a blur, she saw the dark form of Tom Severin, who had come to stand a step below her, with two glasses of iced champagne in his hands. He extended one to her.
Cassandra began to reach for it, but hesitated. "I'm not supposed to have champagne unless it's mixed with punch."
One corner of his wide mouth tipped upward. "I won't tell."
Cassandra took the glass gratefully, and drank. The cold fizz was wonderful, easing the dry tightness of her throat.
"Thank you," she murmured.”
Source: Chasing Cassandra
“things have changed... maybe we have to change, too.”
“Desire for beauty will endure and undermine the desire for truth.”
Source: The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—And Us
“Loosely coupled systems enable experimentation and learning, benefitting from feedback loops.”
Source: Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
“Will those insights be tested,or simply used to justify the status quo and reinforce prejudices? When I consider the sloppy and self-serving ways that companies use data, I'm often reminded of phrenology, a pseudoscience that was briefly the rage in the nineteenth century. Phrenologists would run their fingers over the patient's skull, probing for bumps and indentations. Each one, they thought, was linked to personality traits that existed in twenty-seven regions of the brain. Usually the conclusion of the phrenologist jibed with the observations he made. If the patient was morbidly anxious or suffering from alcoholism, the skull probe would usually find bumps and dips that correlated with that observation - which, in turn, bolstered faith in the science of phrenology. Phrenology was a model that relied on pseudoscientific nonsense to make authoritative pronouncements, and for decades it went untested. Big Data can fall into the same trap. Models like the ones that red-lighted Kyle Behm and black-balled foreign medical students and St. George's can lock people out, even when the "science" inside them is little more than a bundle of untested assumptions.”
Source: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
“Because we bump into reinforcing loops so often, it is handy to know this shortcut: The time it takes for an exponentially growing stock to double in size, the “doubling time,” equals approximately 70 divided by the growth rate (expressed as a percentage).
Example: If you put $100 in the bank at 7% interest per year, you will double your money in 10 years (70 ÷ 7 = 10). If you get only 5% interest, your money will take 14 years to double.”
Source: Thinking in Systems: A Primer
“If you make a habit of dismissing or catastrophizing your setbacks, you can also fall into a feedback loop that causes those reactions to magnify.”
Source: The Personal Sustainability Handbook: 60+ Practices to Sustainabilize Your Health, Finances, Relationships and Beyond
“There is indeed a distinction and nobility full of feeling in this higher form of tenderness that is very different from the conventional distinction and nobility which are distant and formal. This tenderness does not avoid contact with the most humble of men, and is unperturbed by situations in which others would be afraid of failing. The model of this tenderness is the kenosis, the condescension, of Christ. He did not wish to hold himself aloof from sinners, nor from the kind of women who are avoided by men concerned for their own reputation. The kenosis, the self-emptying of Christ is, in itself, the supreme form of tenderness. In it is shown the desire not to be a burden to the humble, nor to embarrass them. By his kenosis he desired to open up a way into their hearts. By kindness he intended to make them give up their cruel ways, instead of persisting in a hardness in which the ‘inferior’ returns the contempt of the ‘superior’.”
Source: Prayer and Holiness: The Icon of Man Renewed in God