“Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”
–George S. Patton
Don’t tell people how to do things
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Tag Archives: Quotable
Death
One of my first posts was a quote from Lawrence Block’s Everybody Dies:
“When you die, it is said you see your whole life. But you don’t see it minute by minute, like a speeded-up film. It’s like everything you ever did in all your days was a brushstroke, and now you see the whole painting all at once.”
Poet Billy Collins has a different view:
I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.
From The Art of Drowning
Milton from Office Space
“And I said, I don’t care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I’m, I’m quitting, I’m going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they’ve moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn’t bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it’s not okay because if they take my stapler then I’ll set the building on fire.”
— Milton from Office Space.
Dan Gillmor on rolling his own news
“I realized I was probably getting a better report than anyone watching television in the United States. It was more complete, more varied. In effect, I’d rolled my own news. It was a convergence of old and new media, but the newest component was my own tinkering to create my own news “product” — a compilation of the best material I could find. It was a pale imitation of what we’ll be able to do next year and in future races, but it worked.”
Dave Winer on blogging
“Weblog software is going to be like mail servers. Lots of ways to deploy, every niche filled. For the masses, services like Yahoo, MSN and AOL. Blogging servers for corporations, inside and outside of the firewall. For schools, for the military, specialized systems for lawyers, librarians, professors, reporters, magazines, daily newspapers. The next President will have a blog. Writing for the Web, the prevailing form of publishing in the early 21st Century, will come in many sizes and shapes, flavors and styles. It won’t be one-size-fits-all. Open formats and protocols will make this possible.”
— Dave Winer on blogging
When the men with the swords come, run away!
“When the men with the swords come, run away! Especially if they’ve got Bibles, too.”
— Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver (pg 400)
Evan Williams on blogging
That’s how Evan Williams described blogging in a really good article/interview at C|Net’s News.com.
The whole “do not be evil” thing, and sort of a democratic approach to how information should be distributed and available for us. We’re all about giving anyone a voice, and Google’s all about finding out what’s important on the Web by what people link to and what people say.
Acquaintance or friend
“The dividing line is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With acquaintances, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit. Many marriages are between acquaintances. You can be with a person for three hours of your life and have a friend. Another one will remain an acquaintance for thirty years.”
— Bright Orange for the Shroud, John D. MacDonald (page 15)
Books and Movies
Finished Bangkok 8 (“Waiting is difficult only for those beset by the delusion of time.”) and started Google Hacks. Saw the new Ridley Scott film, Matchstick Men. One of those rare instances where I figured it out in the first few minutes. I liked House of Games and The Game better.
There are no secrets
“There are no secrets, only information you don’t have yet.” A great tag. Adam Curry’s blog.