Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
Quote of the Week 17 " Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." ― misattributed to Oscar Wilde Source: Quote Investigator . See also: Professor Buzzkill .
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There is no truth, only belief.
Quote of the Week 16 " There is no truth, only belief." ― Unknown I have seen this quote attributed to René Descartes and David Hume but could not find a definitive source. See also " The Belief in Truth " and Oleg Filin's " The Portrait of M. Monroe " for expressing the same thought.
Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
Quote of the Week 15 " Good artists copy. Great artists steal." ― Misattributed to Pablo Picasso Source: Quote Investigator
Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
Quote of the Week 14 " Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal." ― Friedrich Nietzsche Triggered by the use of the quote in an internal presentation. " V iele sind hartnäckig in Bezug auf den einmal eingeschlagenen Weg, wenige in Bezug auf das Ziel ." ― Friedrich Nietzsche ( Werk: Menschliches, Allzumenschliches I, Aph. 494 )
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Quote of the Week 13 " The truth is rarely pure and never simple." ― Oscar Wilde Triggered by the use of the quote from "The Importance of Being Earnest" in a recent tweet by Kara Swisher.
There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.
Quote of the Week 12 " There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all. " ― Peter Drucker Triggered by the use of the quote in a review of the book " Ask Your Developer " by Jeff Lawson. In line with a quote cited here before: " What's not worth doing is not worth doing well. " ― Abraham Maslow
Optimism is just lack of information.
Quote of the Week 11 "Optimism is just lack of information ." ― Heiner Müller Alternative view: "Pessimism is just lack of hope ." Original quote in German: "Optimismus ist nur ein Mangel an Information ." ― Heiner Müller
You are not lost unless you think you are lost.
Quote of the Week 10 "Y ou are not lost unless you think you are lost ." ― Thomas F. Freeman Source: NY Times 2020 Obituary citing from his biography authored by James Ford. Unofficial motto: “What we do, we do well; what we don’t do well, we don’t do at all.” Originally triggered by Ethan Mollick's tweets in January 2022 and 2021 for Martin Luther King Day.
Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
Quote of the Week 9 " Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength . " ― Corrie ten Boom Triggered by Scott Barry Kaufman's tweet . “Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” - Corrie ten Boom pic.twitter.com/vMAayJWrYj — Scott Barry Kaufman ⛵ (@sbkaufman) February 27, 2022 " Sich sorgen nimmt dem Morgen nichts von seinem Leid, aber es raubt dem Heute die Kraft. " ― Corrie ten Boom
50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.
Quote of the Week 8 "50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work." ― Price's Square Root Law (adapted) Triggered by Brian Burns ' use of the law in the context of sales organizations. Note that Price 's well-known square root law originally states that "half of the literature on a subject will be contributed by the square root of the total number of authors publishing in that area". ( Price's square root law: Empirical validity and relation to Lotka's law - ScienceDirect ) One should be careful applying the law to different organizational contexts. It does not necessarily apply to performance management in general. ( Kienbaum Blog - Price’s Law and the Trouble of Operationalizing Performance ) See also: Price's Law: What It Is And Why You Should Care - Darius Foroux
Which is more important, the journey or the destination? The company.
Quote of the Week 7 "Which is more important," asked Big Panda, "the journey or the destination?" "The company," said Tiny Dragon. ― James Norbury ( Big Panda & Tiny Dragon ) (C) James Nurbory, jamesnurbory .com German translation : "Was ist wichtiger?", fragte der große Panda, "Der Weg oder das Ziel?" "Die Weggefährten", sagte der kleine Drache.
Give me questions I can't answer not answers I can't question.
Quote of the Week 6 " Give me questions I can't answer not answers I can't question. " ― A @ProfFeynman tweet Source: Tweet
Man is a deterministic device thrown into a probabilistic universe. In this match, surprises are expected.
Quote of the Week 5 " Man is a deterministic device thrown into a probabilistic universe. In this match, surprises are expected ." ― Amos Tversky Cited in Michael Lewis' book " The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds " featuring the joint work and friendship of two renowned psychologists: Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky . See http://covestreetcapital.com/amos-tversky-an-amazing-man/ for more Amos Tversky quotes taken from the book .
No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.
Quote of the Week 4 " No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story ." ― Daniel Kahneman Cited in a 2017 Forbes and a 2016 Vanity Fair article that promoted Michael Lewis' book " The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds " featuring the joint work and friendship of two renowned psychologists: Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky .
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is man’s inability to understand the exponential function.
Quote of the Week 3 " The greatest shortcoming of the human race is man’s inability to understand the exponential function." ― Albert A. Bartlett Source: Quote Investigator
You shall know a word by the company it keeps.
Quote of the Week 2 " You shall know a word by the company it keeps." ― John Rupert Firth Cited in countless publications on Natural Language Processing (NLP) including Christopher Manning's Stanford 2022 " Lecture 1: Introduction and Word Vectors " (slide #18).
As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.
Quote of the Week 1 " As you start to walk on the way, the way appears. " ― Dsch alāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Rumi)
Quote of the Year 2021
Quote of the Year 2021* " Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. " ― Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire [CW 1] Runner-up "Software doesn’t age like fine wine; it ages like milk. Software goes bad over time." ― Josh Corman [CW 29] * as measured by LinkedIn impressions.
It's your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
Quote of the Week 52 " It's your road, and yours alone. O thers may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. " ― Dsch alāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Rumi)
Knowledge is having the right answers. Intelligence is asking the right questions. Wisdom is knowing when to ask the right questions.
Quote of the Week 51 " Knowledge is having the right answers. Intelligence is asking the right questions. Wisdom is knowing when to ask the right questions." ― A @ProfFeynman tweet Source: Tweet
All complex systems that work, evolved from simpler systems that worked.
Quote of the Week 50 " All complex systems that work, evolved from simpler systems that worked. " ― Gall's Law Referenced by Werner Vogels in his recent AWS re:Invent 2021 keynote . Full quote according to Wikipedia : " A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. "
Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.
Quote of the Week 49 " Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born. " ― Nikola Tesla Cited here in context: " The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born."
A real friendship ought to introduce each person to unexpected weirdness in the other.
Quote of the Week 48 " A real friendship ought to introduce each person to unexpected weirdness in the other. " ― Jaron Lanier Cited by Lex Fridman in a podcast with Jaron Lanier: Virtual Reality, Social Media & the Future of Humans and AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #218 - YouTube Another quote from the VR pioneer on Kara Swisher's Sway podcast about what he thinks of Meta and the Mark Zuckerberg Metaverse demo. It was ... "L ike some megalomaniac took my stuff & filtered it through some weird self-aggrandizement filter. " ― Jaron Lanier
After a while you learn that privacy is something you can sell, but you can't buy it back.
Quote of the Week 47 " After a while you learn that privacy is something you can sell, but you can't buy it back. " ― Bob Dylan Stated in Dylan's 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One . Triggered by the use of the quote in Artur Varanda's master thesis The GDPR and Log Pseudonymization . See the paper Log pseudonymization: Privacy maintenance in practice for an excerpt of the research results in English.
If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
Quote of the Week 46 " If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there . " ― Lewis Carroll A paraphrase of an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . Triggered by Thomas Stiehm's use of the quote in his presentation " Continuous Build and other DevOps anti-patterns, and how to overcome them " (slide 4).