I am inclined to see philosophy as arising from a basic aspect of our nature, a thought-drive we possess, the cognitive equivalent to the libido. This thought-drive, call it the epinoia (epino-ah), is an irreducible instinct within us to question, wonder, challenge, probe, explode, shake, shatter, rattle, prod, flip, whip, stretch… in a word, think. Whereas the libido seeks satisfaction, the epinoia, tireless and indefatigable, seeks the endless flight of thought. It never settles. It craves problems, seeks perplexities, and shows no interest in sound conclusions or tidy answers.

— David Birch, Pandora’s Book

Since verbal behavior (spoken or written) is what gets the gold star, students begin to think that verbal behavior has a truth-value.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Map and Territory

…if the poor are to be given relief so they don’t actually starve, it has to be delivered in the most humiliating and onerous ways possible, because otherwise they would become dependent and have no incentive to find proper jobs.

— David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs

Underlings have to constantly monitor what the boss is thinking; the boss doesn’t have to care. That, in turn, is one reason, I believe, why psychological studies regularly find that people of working-class background are more accurate at reading other people’s feelings, and more empathetic and caring, than those of middle-class, let alone wealthy, backgrounds.

— David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs

There’s never an easy answer to the question “Should we do more testing?” because information can guide risk reduction, but doesn’t necessarily do so.

— Gerald Weinberg, Perfect Software and Other Illusions About Testing