Some Quotes for December 2024 (#32)
Jan Houtema, Cate Hall, Henry Ford, Carl Jung, Tiago Forte, Donald Knuth, Jennifer Pagliaroli, Justin McElroy, Yehuda Amichai
Link = source I've actually read/endorse. No link = random, out-of-context snippet I was able to track down on the internet. (Some of these are advice—others I just enjoy the language or sentiment.)
Change breaks the brittle. –Jan Houtema
Burnout = stress - agency. If you have a lot of power to steer things, you can also handle a lot of pressure without burning out. –Cate Hall
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. –Henry Ford (likely apocryphal)
The world will ask who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you. –Carl Jung
From “How to Build Your Second Brain”: They're almost like different facets of your identity...You can't both be totally open-minded and totally skeptical at the same time... For the next 30 minutes, for the next hour or two, I'm going to be in divergent mode to let the filters fall away, make the criteria less stringent, don't immediately criticize and critique every new idea. That's what's needed when it's when you're in divergence. But then you make a decision, “Okay, at this time, tomorrow morning, Wednesday afternoon, or whatever, I'm going to be in convergence mode.” And then you are purposefully skeptical, and purposefully closed-minded. We think of closed-mindedness as being bad, but there are times where you cannot move forward with the thing you're doing unless you close your mind to new information. –Tiago Forte
Premature optimization is the root of all evil. –Donald Knuth
From “Your Best Advice of 2024”: People who avoid their own feelings will neglect yours. –Jennifer Pagliaroli
The antidote to despair is action. –Justin McElroy
From “On Some Other Planet You Might Be Right”:
Look, just as time isn't inside clocks
love isn't inside bodies:
bodies only tell the love.
–Yehuda Amichai