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Great Quotes

paulgraham.com

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Re: Great Quotes

#22

Post by loceng »

"The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act."

I feel many investors or even people in general misinterpret being relaxed and non-intense (vs. being serious) as someone who's not passionate or uninterested or not a go-getter.

It's been reoccurring to get advice of the nature that you have to wow people with a high-intensity pitch in order to win investors over, though that feels completely wrong to me - which this quote nicely encompasses.

Re: Great Quotes

#23

Post by lifeisstillgood »

>>> "Many large and high class greengrocers of my acquaintance have never heard of the Golden Wonder potato."

- Roy Genders, Vegetables for the Epicure

A small fact but the entire UK crop of Golden Wonder potatoes is absorb by the crisp (US: potato chip) industry. You literally cannot buy them in normal mainstream channels.

It's late and I thought it was interesting that that breed of potato was mentioned ... Not sure why it was to be honest...

Re: Great Quotes

#24

Post by hristov »

Those are all very interesting, but I wish Paul had not included the quote from the crusaders. I am not sure what the point of including this quote was. It is quite possible that the crusaders did not get the best impression from the greeks, but considering that the crusaders raped and pillaged as they traveled through Greece, one may understand why the greeks did not treat them very well.

Any quote from the crusaders should be taken with a lot of historical background. The crusaders caused a lot of suffering often to their supposed fellow christians.

Re: Great Quotes

#26

Post by guiomie »

This quote, followed by google, followed by this video http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/0ap2000000146968/Garo-Y..., made my night.

"Many big people were chasing me. I didn't know what to do. So I thought I would surprise them and throw it."

- Garo Yepremian, Miami placekicker, after a disastrous attempt to throw a pass in the Super Bowl.

Re: Great Quotes

#27

Post by kevbin »

Peter Medawar is the best science writer—even Dawkins & Gould agree on that. He writes clearly with style and wit. His collection of essays "The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice" is a great read.

Re: Great Quotes

#28

Post by notnickwolf »

"As all these results were obtained, not by any heroic method, but by patient and detailed reasoning, I began to think it probable that philosophy had erred in adopting heroic remedies for intellectual difficulties, and that solutions were to be found merely by greater care and accuracy. This view I have come to hold more and more strongly as time went on, and it has led me to doubt whether philosophy, as a study distinct from science and possessed of a method of its own, is anything more than an unfortunate legacy from theology."

- Bertrand Russell, "Logical Atomism"

Could someone explain this quote more?

Re: Great Quotes

#29

Post by gjm11 »

notnickwolf wrote: post #28

"As all these results were obtained, not by any heroic method, but by patient and detailed reasoning, I began to think it probable that philosophy had erred in adopting heroic remedies for intellectual difficulties, and that solutions were to be found merely by greater care and accuracy. This view I have come to hold more and more strongly as time went on, and it has led me to doubt whether philosophy, as a study dis…

I believe the following is a reasonably accurate but more explicit paraphrase.

1. Philosophers have sometimes attempted to deal with the big questions they face by giving big grandiose answers. ("Heroic remedies for intellectual difficulties".)

2. What actually appears to be more effective in producing genuine solutions to hard problems is simply very careful and clear thinking. ("Greater care and accuracy".)

3. Careful and clear thinking isn't really a special subject all to itself: it's just what one should be doing in every field of study, and when systematized and taken very far it turns into science and mathematics.

4. So maybe it's a mistake to think of philosophy as a separate field of activity with special methods, because the most effective way of dealing with philosophical problems is just to apply the same methods of thinking that are useful everywhere, and especially those of science.

5. Why might we have thought otherwise? Perhaps because a lot of philosophical topics were formerly within the purview of theology, and a distinctive philosophical method seemed necessary only by contrast with the even more unhelpful methods of theology.

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