Asimov’s “The Relativity of Wrong”: When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, How to Actually Change Your Mind

…the promotion of viewpoint diversity is nearly as superficial and dehumanizing as the forms of indoctrination it means to replace.

— Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought

…the one who doesn’t look the part, conditional on having made a (sort of) successful career in his profession, had to have much to overcome in terms of perception. And if we are lucky enough to have people who do not look the part, it is thanks to the presence of some skin in the game, the contact with reality that filters out incompetence, as reality is blind to looks.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

There just isn’t any good substitute for genuine curiosity. A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, How to Actually Change Your Mind

Only self-absorbed assholes think they are too good for whatever their current station requires.

— Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way