“Typing is an essential skill, but it can be painful. Some children just don't know where the letters are. Typing a three-page story, when they have to spend minutes hunting for every letter, can take forever. Yet we tend to assume that children can type, partly because quite a lot of us know where quite a lot of the letters are, so we assume that children do, too.” KnowsChildrenStoriesThreeForeverMinutesTypeSkillsEssentialsPagesLettersAssumingPainfulHuntingTyping Author:Susan Mitchell
“Most people assume that a record shop's success lies in selling records. In fact, Virgin's success both in mail order and the record shops lay in skill at buying records.” PeopleFactsLyingOrderRecordsSkillsLaysAssumingSellingBuyingShopsMailVirgins Author:Richard Branson
“Assume that a surgeon has discovered how to do brain surgery, that he can do only one a month, that 1,000 persons a year need such an operation if they are to survive. How is the surgeon's scarce resource to be allocated? Charge whatever price is necessary to adjust supply and demand, say $50,000! 'For shame,' some will cry. 'Your market system will save only wealthy people.' For the moment, yes. But soon there will be hundreds of surgeons who will acquire the same skill; and, as in the case of the once scarce and expensive 'miracle drugs,' the price then will be within reach of all.” PeopleIfsNeedsYearsPersonsMomentsCan DoBrainCasesCryMonthsDrugSkillsDemandResourcesMiracleShameAssumingOperationsAcquireExpensiveWealthySurgerySurgeonsScarceWithin ReachSupply And DemandBrain SurgeryScarce Resources Author:Leonard Read
“Teaching in Providence and Oakland, I realized that the first thing is that it wasn't good enough to come in and assume that I had what my students needed in terms of knowledge and skills. I also had to show them that I was their ally. I had to show them that I was concerned about them, wanted to relate to them, and that I was fundamentally on their side.” FirstsEnoughShowsWantedSidesTermTeachingStudentsNeededSkillsConcernedAssumingI RealizedRelateGood EnoughAlliesProvidenceOakland Author:Pedro Noguera
“Kids coming from very difficult economic circumstances in urban areas are in some ways discriminated against in ways that are similar to the way people with intellectual disabilities are discriminated against. People are afraid of them. People sometimes assume that they don't have skills, gifts or abilities to contribute.” PeopleWaySometimesKidsDifficultAbilityEconomicCircumstancesSkillsIntellectualAreasAssumingDisabilityUrbanUrban AreasIntellectual Disability Author:Timothy Shriver
“These things - the degree of vulnerability, the degree of skill, the degree of the longing to give - are influx all the time, And to lump all that under the word "creativity" assumes something much more static than it is. That's why an artist may be marvelous in her 20s, and be creating automatic crap in her 40s. A writer may be trivial in his 20s, and be writing incredibly in his 50s, because those things are always in flux.” GivingWritingMayArtistCreativitySkillsDegreesCreatingLongingAssumingVulnerabilityCrapMarvelousStaticLumpsFlux Author:Michael Ventura
“Entertainers wrongly assume that their fame, money, and influence arise from broad knowledge rather than natural talent, looks, or mastery of a narrow skill.” LooksNaturalInfluenceTalentFameSkillsAssumingAriseBroadsMasteryEntertainersNatural Talent Author:Victor Davis Hanson
“She assumes that skill will guide her fingertips, that shapely lines will uncoil out of the pencil the moment she starts. Surely talent is a thing curled deep inside, just waiting to be exercised, and at the slightest invitation it will stretch, shake itself, make itself known? Talent, it seems, is not so insistent.” MomentsSeemsWaitingLinesKnownTalentSkillsAssumingGuidesShakesPencilsInvitationsDeep InsideFingertips Author:Gregory Maguire
“We can assume that most people, most of the time, are moral creatures. But imagine that this morality is like a gearshift that at times gets pushed into neutral. When that happens, morality is disengaged. If the car happens to be on an incline, car and driver move precipitously downhill. It is then the nature of the circumstances that determines outcomes, not the driver's skills or intentions.” PeopleIfsHappensMovingMoralImagineCarCircumstancesMoralitySkillsCreaturesAssumingIntentionDetermineOutcomesDriversImagine ThatIncline Author:Philip Zimbardo