Occasional Musings

"You just don’t say ‘no’ when somebody says ‘Let’s quit our jobs and make..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 09:52:30 -0400

“You just don’t say ‘no’ when somebody says ‘Let’s quit our jobs and make robots!’”

- Bre Pettis on the founding of Maker Bot on May 25, 2012 (via Swissmiss)

"It would be a shame to lose the war because we had won a few battles."

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:38:00 -0400

“It would be a shame to lose the war because we had won a few battles.”

- Steve Jobs on keeping up the hustle after initial success during a retreat for NeXT, 1986.

"Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:32:07 -0400

“Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

- Agent Kay played by Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black, 1997.

"Complaining is stupid. Either act or forget."

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:31:00 -0400

“Complaining is stupid. Either act or forget.”

- Stefan Sagmeister in his book Things I have learned in my life so far (February, 2008).

"It is my own experience that a premature attempt to explain something that thrills you will destroy..."

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:55:00 -0400

“It is my own experience that a premature attempt to explain something that thrills you will destroy your perceptivity rather than increase it, because your tendency will be to explain away rather than seek out.”

- Edwin Land speaking at West Point on May 19, 1955 (from Insisting on the Impossible: The life of Edwin Land, Inventor of Instant Photography, page 245)

"It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."

Sun, 13 May 2012 03:36:00 -0400

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

- Bruce Lee (from Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living, 2002).

"You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you."

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:27:00 -0400

“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.”

- Andy Warhol (via the Andy Warhol Foundation’s annual calendar).

"You don’t have to do it first, you just have to do it right."

Wed, 09 May 2012 07:54:00 -0400

“You don’t have to do it first, you just have to do it right.”

- Jack Dorsey, May 1, 2012.

"The best ideas are just on the right side of impossible."

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:59:00 -0400

“The best ideas are just on the right side of impossible.”

- Paul Graham in his article about frighteningly ambitious startup ideas, March 2012.

"To be human is to tinker, to envision a better condition, and decide to work toward it by shaping..."

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:21:00 -0400

“To be human is to tinker, to envision a better condition, and decide to work toward it by shaping the world around us.”

- Frank Chimero on craft and beauty in The Shape of Design, pg. 30.

"Don’t do anything that someone else can do. Don’t undertake a project unless it is..."

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:18:00 -0400

“Don’t do anything that someone else can do. Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.”

- Edwin Land on his personal motto in Forbes Magazine, May 1987, pg. 83.

"Intuition is a very powerful thing—more powerful than intellect, in my opinion."

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:58:06 -0400

“Intuition is a very powerful thing—more powerful than intellect, in my opinion.”

- Steve Jobs to Walter Isaacson during the extensive, one-on-one interviews that led to Isaacson’s canonical biography (sourced from Isaacson’s HBR article on the leadership lessons of Steve Jobs, April 2012).

"You have to answer ‘Why [does your business] exist?’, ‘What’s your..."

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:00:00 -0400

“You have to answer ‘Why [does your business] exist?’, ‘What’s your [business’] unique identity?’ and the scary part is… ‘very little’. So when you narrow that down to what you are uniquely doing, it’s not an awful lot.”

- Jørgen Vig Knudstorp on how he reinvigorated LEGO after years of decline, during an interview at Europen Zeigeist 2011.

"We aren’t doing anything to make them look up!"

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:47:00 -0400

“We aren’t doing anything to make them look up!”

- Neil deGrasse-Tyson on why kids spend all of their time with their heads down looking at Facebook and playing video games, at the Natural History Museum in NYC on March 15, 2012.

"You will be fooled by a trick if it involves more time, money and practice than you (or any other..."

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:07:00 -0400

“You will be fooled by a trick if it involves more time, money and practice than you (or any other sane onlooker) would be willing to invest.”

- Teller (of Penn & Teller) on how they alter the viewer’s perception in an article written for Smithsonian Magazine (March 2012).

"Man, alone of all the resources available to man, can grow and develop."

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:07:00 -0500

“Man, alone of all the resources available to man, can grow and develop.”

- Peter F. Drucker on why people are the most important part of the business equation, in his seminal book The Practice of Management from 1954 (page 12).

"It’s only through such hard work that we can find out anything."

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:12:00 -0500

“It’s only through such hard work that we can find out anything.”

- Richard Feynman on the scrupulous observation of the position of planets during his talk “Law on Gravitation - An Example of Physical Law” (part one of his iconic “Messenger Lecture Series”), from 1964.

"If you want to build a product, and you want to build a product that is relevant to folks, you need..."

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:36:00 -0500

“If you want to build a product, and you want to build a product that is relevant to folks, you need to put yourself in thier shoes and you need to write a story from thier side.”

- Jack Dorsey on “The Power of Curiosity and Inspiration” at Stanford University, February 9, 2011.

"It may caution the unwary who are innocent of guile, and it may inspire the crafty by enlightenment..."

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:50:00 -0500

“It may caution the unwary who are innocent of guile, and it may inspire the crafty by enlightenment on artifice. It may demonstrate to the tyro that he cannot beat a man at his own game, and it may enable the skilled in deception to take a post-graduate course in the highest and most artistic branches of his vocation. But it will not make the innocent vicious, or transform the pastime player into a professional; or make the fool wise, or curtail the annual crop of suckers; but whatever the result may be, if it sells it will accomplish the primary motive of the author, as he needs the money.”

- S. W. Erdnase. From the introduction to his book Expert at the Card Table, 1901.

"Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:23:00 -0500

“Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte (via Superfamous via Frank)