The intelligentsia therefore feels entitled to deal with the poor as a construct; one they created. Thus they become convinced that they know what is best for them.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

…none of us, thinking alone, is rational enough to consistently come to sound conclusions: rationality emerges from a community of reasoners who spot each other’s fallacies.

— Steven Pinker, Rationality

The human race has not devised any way of dissolving barriers, getting to know the other chap fast, breaking the ice, that is one-tenth as handy and efficient as letting you and the other chap, or chaps, cease to be totally sober at about the same rate in agreeable surroundings.

— Kingsley Amis, Everyday Drinking

Remember, no one wants to suck at their job. Popular culture sells the myth about lazy, stupid, uncaring bureaucrats. It’s easy to dismiss people that way. Buying into the idea that those kinds of problems are really character flaws means you don’t have to recognize that you’ve created an environment where people feel trapped. They are caught between conflicting incentives with no way to win.

— Marianne Bellotti, Kill It With Fire

At its core, all engineering comes down to making tradeoffs between the perfect and the workable.

— Matthew Lyon, Katie Hafner, Where Wizards Stay Up Late