#enjoy #books #wisdom-of-the-ancients

Egg

“If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system which forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals . . . We are all human beings, individuals, fragile eggs. We have no hope against the wall: it's too high, too dark, too cold. To fight the wall, we must join our souls together for warmth, strength. We must not let the system control us — create who we are. It is we who created the system.
— Haruki Murakami, Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech, 2009

Painting

The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint. The greats were great because they'd paint a lot.

Wisdom of the Ancients

"Listen, if tomorrow we pulled into Biren and someone told you there were shamble-men in the woods, would you believe them?"

My father shook his head.

"What if two people told you?"

Another shake.

Ben leaned forward on his stump. "What if a dozen people told you, with perfect earnestness, that shamble-men were out in the fields, eating-"

"Of course I wouldn't believe them," my father said, irritated. "It's ridiculous."

"Of course it is," Ben agreed, raising a finger. "But the real question is this: Would you go into the woods?”

See also Don't Eat Pork

The 90-90 Rule

"The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time."
– Humorous programming adage

The First Two

I had a video game professor who once told me, "The first two games you make will suck. They'll be absolutely terrible. So make them as quickly as possible."

It's a mistake to put all of your time and effort into making your masterpiece. You won't get it right the first time, and you'll regret it later.

Clay Jugs

Frederick Books in his book "The Mythical Man-Month" warns against something similar, saying "beware of a software architect's second project. That's where they want to put all the good ideas they had to cut from the first."

Definition of Art

I don't think I've ever read a definition for art that wasn't stupid. Generally speaking, when a person constructs a thought-machine of this kind, what they're actually trying to do is determine what isn't art.
...
If this thought-machine had any purpose other than to create a world with less art, I could cut it some slack. But it doesn't. Its entire purpose is to rarify art, controlling expression thereby.

Models

"All #models are wrong, but some are useful" — George Box, statistician (and others)

Greek Letters

"Ancient Greece was the place where the smartest dudes were at, now the only place you see Greek letters is at a fuckin' frat" – Bo Burnham, Ironic

Samuel Vimes Boot Theory Of Economics

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness

Equality

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread
– Anatole France, The Red Lily

John Wesley

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity
– Probably not John Wesley

The point is clear: as a religion, agree about the essential things, let people choose for themselves on everything else, but above all else, don't be a dick about it.

Misc Advice

Vonnegut's Rule

“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”

– Kurt Vonnegut

John Adams

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine..
– Letter to his wife Abigail

This is often quoted as "I must be a politician so my son can be a farmer so that his son can be an artist."

Deathbed reflection

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Attributed to Mark Twain

Buying Time

Too often we confuse buying a book with buying the time to read it.
— unknown