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.
01/11/2021
Failures in communication generally derive from sending a message to the wrong address. That is, your husband has an ego problem and you send a message to his mind.
— Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising
01/10/2021
Symbols are poor, unhandsome, though necessary, scaffolds of demonstration, and ought no more to appear in public, than the most deformed necessary business which you do in your chambers.
— Thomas Hobbes, The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 7
01/09/2021
Why do people buy an expensive, complicated toaster when a simpler, less-expensive toaster would work just as well? Why all the buttons and controls on steering wheels and rearview mirrors? Because these are the features that people believe they want. They make a difference at the time of sale, which is when such features matter most. Why do we deliberately build things that confuse the people who use them? Answer: because the people want the features. Because the so-called demand for simplicity is a myth whose time has passed, if it ever existed.
— Donald A. Norman, Living with Complexity
01/08/2021
When we think in terms of systems, we see that a fundamental misconception is embedded in the popular term “side-effects.”. . . This phrase means roughly “effects which I hadn’t foreseen or don’t want to think about.”. . . Side-effects no more deserve the adjective “side” than does the “principal” effect. It is hard to think in terms of systems, and we eagerly warp our language to protect ourselves from the necessity of doing so.
— Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems
01/07/2021
something mentally strenuous provides a greater benefit to learning than something easy.
— Scott Young, Ultralearning
1905 post articles, 381 pages.