Posts Tagged ‘quote’

Thought of the day

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

When we are surprised by a particular outcome or event, we should consciously acknowledge that there must be a gap between our perception and reality. A surprise should be a signal inviting us to realign our intuition and our thinking so that they conform to actuality. One of the life lessons that mathematical thinking offers [...]

Smart Things: KSR on leaving the Earth

Friday, July 31st, 2009

When I consider the solar system as our working neighborhood, I am reminded not of “the final frontier,” but of Antarctica. Our Antarctic stations are a bit like moon bases that we can reach with airplanes. We staff them with rotating crews, and carry out interesting and useful research, but fully inhabiting the ice is [...]

July 5, 2009 7:57 pm

“Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.” That’s one of many entertaining quotes from AC Grayling‘s appearance in the Guardian’s “This much I know” series.

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SF Writers Say Smart Things: Jonathan Carroll

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Better to have a good story than a good time. Bad life experiences often end up great material for stories. Good times are often forgotten. —Jonathan Carroll

Old John D. Knew A Thing Or Two

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

A parade is a group, and I’m not a group animal. I think a mob, no matter what it happens to be doing, is the lowest form of living thing, always steaming with potential murder. Several things I could write on my placard and then carry it all by myself down empty streets. UP WITH [...]

That’s The Problem.

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

I will have more to say about this when I’m not about to start a 24-hour flight around more than half the world, but I just want to nail down this quote from Clay Shirky talking about Iran/Twitter/etc: Absolutely. I’ve been saying this for a while — as a medium gets faster, it gets more [...]

CIA caught with pants down, by spiral notebook

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Organizations breed both bureaucracy and incompetence. I’m tempted to ask Trish to tell me why this is–I’m sure it’s something well known in her field, but it sure seems to be empirical fact: you create an organization and certain institutional pressures necessarily lead to behaviours that are rational at the individual level, but which result [...]

QOTD: On Romance

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

A good romance is defined by a passionate desire. A want of something so near, but unattainable. It’s longing of the future or of the past and the possibilities that could never be. It’s the futility and foolishness of making oneself vulnerable, no matter what disasters may occur. A good romance rarely ends happily, and [...]

QOTD: Trent Reznor

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

“One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, ‘Wait – you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the f**k made that [...]

Smart Things: Sterling on the death of editorial cartoons

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

“Man, that's like seeing a stake put through the heart of the 20th century. Watching banks fail is a picnic compared to this.” —Bruce Sterling in “You know newspapers are screwed when even the CARTOONISTS catch it“.

SF Authors Say Smart Things: KSR on climate & social justice

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Does the word postcapitalism look odd to you? It should, because you hardly ever see it. We have a blank spot in our vision of the future. Perhaps we think that history has somehow gone away. In fact, history is with us now more than ever, because we are at a crux in the human [...]

White Lily

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

The one-armed man walks into a flower shop And says: What flower expresses Days go by And they just keep going by endlessly Pulling you Into the future Days go by Endlessly Endlessly pulling you Into the future?

Today’s Brilliant Quote

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Spotted on Jonathan Carroll’s blog today: “The secret of life,” said sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, “is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is—it must be something you cannot [...]

Easy To Say, Hard To Do

Monday, January 26th, 2009

One of many.

SF Writers Say Smart Things: WJW On Geek Fiction

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

I’ve never mistaken my hobbies for real life. I’ve always craved real life, even when I didn’t have one. I’ve sought out life, even when I didn’t know how. I’ve always tried to live real life, even when I didn’t have a clue. I travel a lot. I talk to strangers. I eat their candy. [...]