An Import of my Tumblr Blog
Please know there are much better things in life than being lonely or liked or bitter or mean or self-conscious. We are all full of shit. Go love someone just because; I know your heart may be badly bruised, or even the victim of numerous knifings, but it will always heal, even if you don’t want it to; it keeps going. There are the most fantastic, beautiful things and people out there, I promise. It is up to you to find them.
Dionysus was the god of the most blessed ecstasy and the most enraptured love. But he was also the persecuted god, the suffering and dying god, and all whom he loved, all who attended him, had to share his tragic fate.
[The] sole motivating factor behind the death penalty is vengeance, not justice, and I firmly believe that a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.
The realist, someone who calls the odds very precisely, is going to have some trouble, because the organization favors optimists, those with the ‘Can Do’ spirit. A ‘Can Do’ spirit means, among other things, that you think you can do things you cannot do.
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate in Economics, on Idea Lab
In this interview he also states that the key trait of entrepreneurs is ‘delusional optimism’.
Realists are forced out by the organizational immune system, especially when confronting senior leadership about the cognitive biases inherent in most policy setting. At the most obvious, pointing out that some initiative is based on optimistic projections will lead to the realist being sidelined as a trouble-maker intent on demotivating people.
There is no really good intervention possible to counter irrational exuberance once an elite group in an entrepreneurial organization have collectively decided to move forward. The fact that one in ten or one in a hundred turns out to create a billion dollar business justifies the waste and pain of the failed nine or ninety-nine efforts, at least in the mind of the entrepreneur.
The fast-and-loose business has room for realists, because the core foundation is about being engaged in your work, and connecting to others through a deep culture based on constant learning and adaptation. It is not about mobilizing people into collective delusional mindsets or quests. Laissez-faire management starts with an appreciation of the cognitive biases underlying group dynamics and decision making, while entrepreneurialism is based upon glorifying bias and applauds the 1% who win the gamble as triumphant geniuses, instead of just dumb luck.
(via stoweboyd)
Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.
Albert Einstein (via emergentpattern)
No one knows what energy is. Or matter for that matter. Sure energy is the ability to do work. But that’s just a concept. What is it? No one knows. Not Einstein, not Hawking, not me, not you. That’s philosophy.
(via sceneryofme)
Everything is information.
Do you really believe that the sciences would have ever originated and grown if the way had not been prepared by magicians, alchemists, astrologers, and witches whose promises and pretensions first had to create a thirst, a hunger, a taste for hidden and forbidden powers?
Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.
God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought.
It’s hard for me to even remember the last time I was in a library.
…
[I]t’s impossible to see a world where we keep libraries open simply to pretend they still serve a purpose for which they no longer serve.
The End Of The Library | TechCrunch
Well, white dude with I’m guessing considerable stock in Google, is the library just there for your needs or purposes?
Maybe you enjoyed your exercise in wordplay and making points already made. But what was your point again? Books make libraries so without books libraries aren’t libraries? Books look different so libraries can’t be libraries? Libraries look different so libraries can’t be libraries? You don’t need libraries for books so we don’t need libraries? I’m sorry, what?
Oh but wait, we’re pretending? Pretending what? Pretending there’s an access divide? Pretending there’s a digital divide? Pretending information illiteracy? Pretending folks lack job skills? Pretending college students need help with citation (BAHA HAHAHAHAHHA)? Did I get a Masters in Pretending? I MEAN I DO HAVE A GREAT IMAGINATION SO I PROBS GOT STRAIGHT A’S. OR P’S FOR PRETENDING. I’m sorry, what?
(via yellowdecorations)
Also read this from BeerBrarian – The End of “The End of Libraries”
On Sunday, October 14th, yet another “End of Libraries” piece appeared. Per usual, it was written by a white male with no use for libraries, because every single time this trope appears, that’s part of the author’s demographic background. Beyond that, it’s a crucial part of the author’s background. It is overwhelmingly affluent white men who argue that because they do not use something, it has no value for anyone. Libraries. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Affordable health care. It’s the same argument.
(via thedanaash)
“The internet has replaced the importance of libraries as a repository for knowledge.” Ah, yes, because you can trust everything you read on the internet.
Republicans play this game all the time. “I don’t need it, therefore it’s not important and we should get rid of it.” I can vividly remember the last time I was in a library. It was three weeks ago. I needed to do research and the material I needed was not online. Not every book is completely indexed in Google Books. And yes, an ebook is cheaper and faster than buying a physical copy of a book – but it’s harder to skim through an ebook quickly, and the physical copy at the library costs you nothing (up front; tax dollars etc etc).
Like I said, I was at the library three weeks ago. It was around 4 pm on a Tuesday. And you know what? It was CROWDED. There was a packed sign-up sheet for the computers. Kids and parents abounded in the children’s section. Older people and teenagers read at the tables in the main area. I had to wait in line to check out my book.
Before that, I had spent a lot of quality time on my library’s website. I like to read both physical books and ebooks. My library does Kindle loans. OK, their website is a crappy government website, and it can be a little difficult to navigate, but it’s doable. I read books I probably couldn’t or wouldn’t pay full price for, AKA a big part of the purpose of a library.
Libraries are not useless in the digital age, and even more importantly, they aren’t all empty. Just because YOU, PERSONALLY do not need or use something doesn’t make it a charming but impractical relic of a long-forgotten age.
(via thebicker)
What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own lashes. All things are possible. Who you are is limited only by who you think you are.