May 2021Monthly Archives

If you ever find yourself uncritically believing attacks against your enemies, take one of your heroes from the past and read what people said and believed about them.

Often, fights seem to happen because when one person brings up a grievance, the other is tempted to counter with another grievance (defensively or because they have no other opportunity), thus escalation; the solution, perhaps: regularly air grievances, never do so as a reaction.

“Thus, although the saint puts himself last, finds himself in the lead.

Although he is not self-concerned, finds himself accomplished.

It is because he is not focused on self-interests and hence can fulfill his true nature.” —Tao Te Ching

Being on the right side of history means holding on to something long enough that it becomes old, a little boring or, figuratively, history, at least long enough for the tide of fashion to have gone out and tested whether you can stand unassisted.

Get rid of the need for praise and recognition, and assume that nobody will give you any of either ever again. This will, hopefully, make you a little more sure that you’re in for the right reasons, plus any praise that occurs is a bonus.

Often people see progress as a straight line, in fact it’s a branching tree with many rejected possibilities. Corollary 1: Don’t be smug about your politics, you may be on a dead end. Corollary 2: Remember that dead ends are necessary, like failed products or rejected hypotheses.

Who is the bigger fool: the fool, or the fool whose only delight is the folly of other fools?

To me, the skyline of software and devices is populated almost entirely with unadorned, steel-and-glass skyscrapers: no Royal Albert Hall, no Nasir-ol-Molk Mosque.