…usually, when things suck, it’s because they suck in a way that’s a Nash equilibrium.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Inadequate Equilibria

…simple design is an imprecise discipline. It relies on judgment and experience. Done well, it is the first indication that separates an apprentice who knows the rules from a journeyman who understands the principles.

— Robert C. Martin, Clean Craftsmanship

There is a hole at the bottom of math, a hole that means we will never know everything with certainty. There will always be true statements that cannot be proven.

— Veritasium, Math’s Fundamental Flaw

Science is often presented in schools and museums as just another form of occult magic, with exotic creatures and colorful chemicals and eye-popping illusions. Foundational principles, such as that the universe has no goals related to human concerns, that all physical interactions are governed by a few fundamental forces, that living bodies are intricate molecular machines, and that the mind is the information-processing activity of the brain, are never articulated, perhaps because they would seem to insult religious and moral sensibilities.

— Steven Pinker, Rationality

…most people do seem to accept the basic logic of the contemporary moralists: that society is besieged by those who want something for nothing, that the poor are largely poor because they lack the will and discipline to work, that only those who do or have worked harder than they’d like to at something they would rather not be doing, preferably under a harsh taskmaster, deserve respect and consideration from their fellow citizens.

— David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs