The Soul Toupee is that thing about ourselves we are most deeply embarrassed by and like to think we have cunningly concealed from the world, but which is, in fact, pitifully obvious to everybody who knows us.

— Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing

The best thing software can be is easy, but the way to do this is to get the defaults right, not to limit users’ choices.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters

I will view all lands as though they belong to me, and my own as though they belonged to all humankind

— Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

…the fact of the matter is that human ego is a very natural thing, and it is difficult to find people who can—or even should—divorce their ego from their work.

— Robert L. Glass, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

The crux of the problem, in my view, is that understanding language requires understanding the world, and a machine exposed only to language cannot gain such an understanding.

— What Does It Mean for AI to Understand?, Melanie Mitchell