Whatever lofty happiness man in his earthen bonds names with the names of the gods: the harmony of faith, that does not waver, of friendship, that knows no doubts; the light, that to the wise comes only in lonely thoughts, and for the poets burns only in lovely images. All that did I—in my best hours— Discover in her, and found there for myself. —GOETHE, “FÜR EWIG” (FOR ETERNITY)

— Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought

At the end of the day, even the magic of machine translation is like Facebook, a way of taking free contributions from people and regurgitating them as bait for advertisers or others who hope to take advantage of being close to a top server.

— Jaron Lanier, Who Owns the Future?

…rational beliefs are contagious, among honest folk who believe each other to be honest. And it’s why a claim that your beliefs are not contagious—that you believe for private reasons which are not transmissible—is so suspicious.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Map and Territory

Failure is predictable because so many software engineers think the conversations about modernizing legacy technology are not relevant to their careers.

— Marianne Bellotti, Kill It With Fire

Consumerism has worked very hard, with the help of popular psychology (‘Just do it!’) to convince people that indulgence is good for you, whereas frugality is self-oppression.

— Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens