Quote of the Day
If you enjoy programming, philosophy, math, or any number of geeky topics, you're in the right place. Every day, I'll post a random quote from my extensive collection of Kindle highlights. Quotes do not necessarily reflect my views or opinions. In fact, part of my epistemic process is to consume a wide variety of contradictory material.
11/25/2020
Before the Reformation, almost no one believed that socially necessary labor was an ennobling activity. After the Reformation, almost everyone did
— James Livingston, Why Work? Breaking the Spell of The Protestant Ethic
11/24/2020
This suggests that taking the outside view is an effective response to the planning fallacy: rather than trying to predict how many hiccups and delays your plans will run into by reflecting in detail on each plan’s particulars (the “inside view”), you can do better by just guessing that your future plans will work out roughly as well as your past plans.
— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Inadequate Equilibria
11/23/2020
On a well-oiled team, different people will be willing to play different roles at different times, depending on what the team needs.
— Steve McConnell, Rapid Development
11/22/2020
I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile; but he thinks he knows something when he does not; whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.
— Plato and Benjamin Jowett (Translator), Dialogues on the Trial & Death of Socrates
11/21/2020
…people mistakenly think about interests, I pointed out. They don’t realize they need to play an active role in developing and deepening their interests.
— Angela Duckworth, Grit
1848 post articles, 370 pages.