Sweet Jesus, history is strange. When trying to see into the future, one always forgets that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. To every discovery, a parry. For every dove, a bullet.


“He’s not so bad, he thought. He’s graceful in defeat. That’s a quality that belongs to a phoenix among men. • • • “What’s so impressive about that? I never get mad when my father beats me at checkers. I know I just have to get better.” “Those are wise words. Not everyone sees a loss as an opportunity.”
― The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
― The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

“If we want to create welcoming, inclusive communities, we should be doing everything we can to turn down the tribalism and turn up the sense of common humanity.”
― The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
― The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”
― The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
― The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
“People don’t see the things they’re rewarded for as problems to fix.”
― Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It
― Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It

“In the past, censorship worked by blocking the flow of information. In the 21st century, censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information. People just don't know what to pay attention to, and they often spend their time investigating and debating side issues.”
― Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
― Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
Brian’s 2020 Year in Books
Take a look at Brian’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
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