two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying

— Michio Kaku, Visions

…class envy doesn’t originate from a truck driver in South Alabama, but from a New York or Washington, D.C., Ivy League–educated IYI (say Paul Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz) with a sense of entitlement, upset some “less smart” persons are much richer.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

There is always a tendency for rich customers to buy expensive solutions, even when cheap solutions are better, because the people offering expensive solutions can spend more to sell them.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters

Accountability has its role, but it’s much more important to understand the problem at hand and try to fix it directly than to create process-driven accountability.

— Will Larson and Tanya Reilly, Staff Engineer

…mere instruction in probability fails to provide lifetime immunity to statistical fallacies. Students forget it as soon as the exam is over and they sell their textbooks, and even when they remember the material, almost no one makes the leap from abstract principles to everyday pitfalls.

— Steven Pinker, Rationality