It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet.
Quote of the Week 32 “ It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet.” ― attributed to Ernest Hemingway
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What can be shown cannot be said.
Quote of the Week 25 “ What can be shown cannot be said.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein Triggered by Hartmut Esslinger 's comment on Apple's "Liquid Glass" UI. From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy : Wittgenstein does not, however, relegate all that is not inside the bounds of sense to oblivion. He makes a distinction between saying and showing which is made to do additional crucial work. “What can be shown cannot be said,” that is, what cannot be formulated in sayable (sensical) propositions can only be shown. This applies, for example, to the logical form of the world, the pictorial form, etc., which show themselves in the form of (contingent) propositions, in the symbolism, and in logical propositions. Even the unsayable (metaphysical, ethical, aesthetic) propositions of philosophy belong in this group—which Wittgenstein finally describes as “things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical”. “ Was gezeigt werden...
Sometimes the moments that never happen matter the most.
Quote of the Week 48 “ Sometimes the moments that never happen matter the most.” ― Volvo (not Jaguar) Triggered by Jaguar 's recent rebranding failure. Introducing the fully electric EX90. Sometimes the moments that never happen matter the most. pic.twitter.com/hVSotYUNLD — Volvo Cars of Vestavia Hills (@volvovestavia) October 4, 2024 Volvo posted a 3 min and 46 second ad on Instagram, shot by Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer of Interstellar and Oppenheimer. It goes against every single rule you can think about as a social lead. Length. Format. Over-produced. Every comment under the ad said it… pic.twitter.com/wkmghuP4ye — Guillaume Huin (@HuinGuillaume) November 21, 2024 The tag line dates back to at least 2017: Sometimes the moments that never happen matter the most. #VolvoXC60 pic.twitter.com/VTNGwu5sNJ — Volvo Cars (@volvocars) June 8, 2017
He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.
Quote of the Week 7 " He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. " ― George Orwell (1984) Triggered by the following tweet : "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell in 1984. Me in the Kremlin to @TuckerCarlson . — Darth Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) February 10, 2024
Words are invitations to learn abstract categories.
Quote of the Week 47 " Words are invitations to learn abstract categories. " ― Lisa Feldman Barrett As stated in the " Surprising Truths about the Human Brain " episode (at 1h:15m) of The Psychology Podcast . Possibly paraphrasing " Words are invitations to learn about categories " by Sandra Waxman and William Thompson.
How can I know what I think till I see what I say?
Quote of the Week 43 "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?" ― E. M. Forster See Quote Investigator for the origin of the quote: T he saying was popularized by both Graham Wallas and E. M. Forster although both disclaimed credit for authorship. ... In conclusion, in 1926 Graham Wallas attributed the expression to a little girl. In 1927 E. M. Forster attributed the expression to an old lady. Both of them helped to popularize the saying. W. H. Auden also used the saying, but he referred back to Forster. "Wie kann ich wissen, was ich denke, bevor ich höre, was ich sage?" ― E. M. Forster
The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn't care if what they say is true or false.
Quote of the Week 34 " The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn't care if what they say is true or false. " ― Harry G. Frankfurt (" On Bullshit ") Triggered by the ongoing discussion of trustworthiness of Large Language Models' (LLMs) output. Under this definition LLMs are bullshitters, not liars. But liars can use them to amplify their lies. Full quote : "The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn't care if what they say is true or false, but rather only cares whether or not their listener is persuaded." Related : „It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.“ „Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstance require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.“
Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce systems which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.
Quote of the Week 48 " Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce systems which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations . " ― Melvin Conway ( Conway's Law ) In short : " The product of any group reflects the structure of the group. " Even shorter: " Architecture follows Organization " Triggered by the reference to a variant of Conway's Law in Fred Brooks's renowned book " T he Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering " (see quote of last week for a reference to Brooks's Law ). The original quote was used by Martin Fowler in his noteworthy October 2022 article on the same subject: " Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure . " Fowler states: "Important enough to affect every system I've come across, and powerful enough that you...
Speech was given to man to conceal his thoughts.
Quote of the Week 41 " Speech was given to man to conceal his thoughts. " ― Charles Maurice de Talleyrand -Périgord Triggered by Harald Schmidt's use of Talleyrand 's quote in a TV discussion earlier this summer. Most likely a variation of a quote by Voltaire : " Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts. " " Die Menschen gebrauchen ihren Verstand nur, um ihr Unrecht zu rechtfertigen, und ihre Sprache allein, um ihre Gedanken zu verbergen. "
One cannot not communicate
Quote of the Week 30 " One cannot not communicate." ― Paul Watzlawick One of the five Axioms of Communication ; also quoted as: "You cannot not communicate. " Paul Watzlawick was born 100 years ago on July 25, 1921. Triggered by Ursula Moonen's LinkedIn post . Poster by Erik Spiekermann on p98a
No one comes out of a day full of Twitter celebrating humanity.
Quote of the Week 10 " No one comes out of a day full of Twitter celebrating humanity. " ― Cal Newport (Computer Scientist and Writer) Source: Deep Work, Focus, Productivity, Email, and Social Media | Lex Fridman Podcast
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
Quote of the Week 47 " The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. " ― attributed to George Bernard Shaw See also Q uote Investigator .