Me: Hindsight.
Professor X: That’s not going to help us.
Me: Yes, I see that now.
Then, as now...
The truth is incontrovertible.
Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
~ Winston Churchill
The Geezer's Paradox
You don't become cooler with age, but care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way to actually be cool.
Good advice but...soap for brushing teeth?!
You keep asking questions and posing situations, and I keep thinking of my father: A man whose sink had on it one big bar of durable, good soap. And that bar of soap was used for cleaning, shaving, and brushing his teeth. It worked fine; it was fast; it was economical. He could then get on with his day.
I think we clutter our minds and our lives in a way people would have liked for my father to clutter his toilet. There is too much clutter and too much thinking and too much devising. I think you need to be true to your work and your friends--these should be small circles. People who have too many friends tend to have too few ideas, I find, and they cover up their disappointment with parties and chatter and movement.
Focus on working well and being there for you, your work, and your friends. One bar of soap. Taught me a lot.
~ Katharine Hepburn/Interview with James Grissom/1990
Truth...
Sometimes, the only reason why you won’t let go of what’s making you sad is because it was the only thing that made you happy.
~ found on the interwebs
Still missing you...
I’m afraid we’ll be the ones who miss each other their entire life
~ found on the interwebs
Poetic...
I believed that I wanted to be a poet, but deep down I just wanted to be a poem.
~ Jaime Gil de Biedma
Growth
Do not use your energy to worry. Use your energy to believe, to create, to learn, to think and to grow.
~ Richard Feynman
The Feynman Method - Redux
Here is another version of the Feynman method that I posted a while back. I like how this version restates the four steps.
How to learn things with the Feynman method:
- Teach the concept to an imaginary child
- Identify gaps in your knowledge and go back to your source material to learn what you’re missing
- Organize your notes into a narrative
- Now go actually teach it to someone
ps: Happy Birthday to me!
An oldie but a goodie...
A mountain man buys his first chain saw.
He comes back to the store a week later complaining that it cuts down only two trees a day when he was told it would cut down 20.
The service person says, “Well, let’s see what the trouble is,” and starts it up.
The mountain man jumps back and asks, “What’s that noise?”
The man knew...
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
~ Dr. Stephen Hawking
Agreed. Alas, I only memorized many things in my life.
Memorization is not learning.
~ Richard Feynman
Wives don't do that...do they?...DO THEY!!???
You know, I think some women cut off their husband's balls, and then they wonder why they're not attracted to them anymore.
~ Daphne, The White Lotus, Season 2
Indeed...
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
~ Charles Bukowski (also attributed to Bertrand Russell...and W.B Yeats)
I'm Uncle Dudley...
Uncle Dudley’s Concise Guide to Critical Thinking
1. Who is telling me this?
2. How does he or she know this?
3. Given #1 and #2, is it possible that he or she is wrong?
4. If the answer to #3 is “yes”, find another, unrelated source.
5. Repeat until the answer to #3 is very, very unlikely.
(Until process is complete, assume baloney)
A favorite of mine...
One of the cool things about life is that it's a proportional experience. The more passion we put into it, the richer the reward.
It's entirely our call - we all get exactly what we want.
Works nearly every time...
Guilia: What do I have to do to be left alone, Claudia?
Claudia: You just have to shut the door...
~ L'Avventura
Also in relationships and life in general...
Last night, I went to bed, intending to think about lots of things.
But I fell asleep instead.
~ Anna, to Claudia, in L'Avventura
A mystery, indeed...
Person: How do you perform so well?
Musician: Practice...
Person: It must be an innate gift.
Musician: It's practice.
Person: I can never understand why some people have talent like this. It's magical and a mystery!
Musician: Practice.
A favorite of mine...
A driver stops and picks up a hitchhiker.
The hitchhiker gets in the car and says, "Wow, you're brave! I could be a serial killer."
The driver responds "Nah, I'm not worried. The odds of two serial killers being in the same car are astronomical!"
The state of American politics today (and maybe relationships??)
We know they are lying.
They know they are lying.
They know that we know that they are lying
We know that they know that we know that they are lying,
And still they continue to lie.
~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn
My tai chi great-grand teacher's true heart's desire (and mine, too!)
To share good things with others is my true heart’s desire.
~ Cheng Man-ch’ing
A bit spicy, but good advice nonetheless...
If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em.
~ John Waters
Can also apply to marriage and other important relationships
Don't ever, stop fighting. I don't care if you're doing everything wrong, I want you to try a million different things.Fight until the bitter end to keep yourself and your crew and everybody on board alive.
I never thought of power in this way before! But it rings true...
The most important thing is to become a gatekeeper - to find the choke points of everything, and learn to control that choke point. And then you control everything.
~ Jesse Kelly on The Megyn Kelly Show
I'm glad I never go on caustic rants...
Bitter, party of one!
~ Megyn Kelly, discussing Keith Olberman's rant about his ex-girlfriend, November 2022
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)