Oliver

“Unforced conflict”—when parties remain unresolved, despite it being possible to find a mutually agreeable outcome; usually occurs due to pride, feelings, lack of timely deescalation when it mattered.

A system built with no vision, and attention only on practicalities, will hurt you a decade after it’s finished (if it lasts that long); one built with all vision and no attention to practicalities won’t be ready for a decade (if at all).

The technology of communication should help users to understand and master it.

Why call for open government then use closed technology?

If it can be made human readable at no or trivial cost, it should be made human readable.

‘What people call an “intuitive interface” is generally one which becomes obvious as soon as it is demonstrated. But before the demo there was no intuition of what it would be like. Therefore the real first sense of “intuitive” is retroactively obvious.’—Ted Nelson

If you show your friend that someone they consider a saint is a sinner, you risk making them resent you; if you show them that someone they consider a sinner is a saint, you risk making them hate you.

If you’re asking me not to listen to someone, say, because they’re bad or wrong, first tell me about a topic on which you and they agree: if you can’t name something, you don’t know them well enough to tell me not to listen.

Internet users speak with an Internet accent, but the only character of speech that doesn’t sound like an accent is one’s own.