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December 16 - December 22, 2017
Another definition of modernity: conversations can be more and more completely reconstructed with clips from other conversations taking place at the same time on the planet.
The twentieth century was the bankruptcy of the social utopia; the twenty-first will be that of the technological one.
In most debates, people seem to be trying to convince one another; but all they can hope for is new arguments to convince themselves.
Did you notice that collecting art is to hobby-painting as watching pornography is to doing the real thing? Only difference is status.
CHARMING AND LESS CHARMING SUCKER PROBLEMS
The most depressing aspect of the lives of the couples you watch surreptitiously arguing in restaurants is that they are almost always unaware of the true subject of argument.
It seems that it is the most unsuccessful people who give the most advice, particularly for writing and financial matters. Never get into a business partnership with a retired lawyer unless he has another hobby. Rumors are only valuable when they are denied. The problem with academics is that they really think nonacademics find them more intelligent than themselves.
Universities have been progressing from providing scholarship for a small fee into selling degrees at a large cost.
There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.
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People usually apologize so they can do it again.
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Mathematics is to knowledge what an artificial hand is to the real one; some amputate to replace.
Bureaucracy is a construction designed to maximize the distance between a decision-maker and the
risks of the decision.
Social media are severely antisocial, health foods are empirically unhealthy, knowledge workers are very ignorant, and social sciences aren’t scientific at all.
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People tend to whisper when they say the truth and raise their voice when they lie.
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For so many, instead of looking for “cause of death” when they expire, we should be looking for “cause of life” when they are still around.
It is those who use others who are the most upset when someone uses them.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎙🎙🎙There are the users and then there are the servers.
The users are upset when they get used but feels it is part of their natural charm to use others.
If someone gives you more than one reason why he wants the job, don’t hire him. Executive programs allow us to watch people who have never worked lecturing those who have never pondered.
!!!!! Very true Harvard.
Failure of second-order thinking: he tells you a secret and somehow expects you to keep it, when he just gave you evidence that he can’t keep it himself.
When people say, “I am investing for the long term,” it means they are losing money.
Nice way of saying I am not earning now.
Social networks present information about what people like; more informative if, instead, they described what they don’t like.
All rumors about a public figure are to be deemed untrue until he threatens to sue.
*****FUNNY
I need to keep reminding myself that a truly independent thinker may look like an accountant.
The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary. The most important aspect of fasting is that you feel deep, undirected gratitude when you break the fast. My only measure of success is how much time you have to kill. I wonder if a lion (or a cannibal) would pay a high premium for free-range humans.
If you need to listen to music while walking, don’t walk; and please don’t listen to music.
Men destroy each other during war; themselves during peacetime.
Sports feminize men and masculinize women.
Technology can degrade (and endanger) every aspect of a sucker’s life while convincing him that it is becoming more “efficient.”
The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.
You have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits.
In real life exams, someone gives you an answer and you have to find the
best corresponding questions.
With terminal disease, nature lets you die with abbreviated suffering; medicine lets you suffer with prolonged dying.
Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse, and, mostly, sprezzatura.
In summary, modernity replaced process with result and the relational with the transactional.
$$$$$
Some ideas are born as you write them down, others become dead.
Their idea of the sabbatical is to work six days and rest for one; my idea of
the sabbatical is to work for (part of) a day and rest for six.
What they call “play” (gym, travel, sports) looks like work; the harder they try, the more captive they are.
Most modern efficiencies are deferred punishment.
Formal education is credentials plus negative knowledge, so it sort of works out on balance.
You exist in full if and only if your conversation (or writings) cannot be easily reconstructed with clips from other conversations.
Real life (vita beata) is when your choices correspond to your duties.
Technology is at its best when it is invisible.
Every social association that is not face-to-face is injurious to your health.
I fail to see the difference between extreme wealth and overdose.
Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing. Most people write so they can remember things; I write to forget. What they call philosophy I call literature; what they call literature I call journalism; what they call journalism I call gossip; and what they call gossip I call (generously) voyeurism.
If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don’t attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity…or get another job.
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Writers are remembered for their best work, politicians for their worst mistakes, and businessmen are almost never remembered.
Critics may appear to blame the author for not writing the book they wanted to read; but in truth they are blaming him for writing the book they wanted, but were unable, to write.
