Great Quotes • Hacker News Board

Re: Great Quotes

#51

Post by loceng » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 12:40 PM UTC

rokhayakebe wrote: post #34

loceng wrote: post #22

"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 m…

Unfortunately this is not a problem limited to VCs. It is everywhere apparent. Confidence, imo, is one of the top five worst words of this decade. "Girls like confident men," "Boss wants a confident problem solver," "the coach wants a confident lead player." To my kids, I will teach Courage, instead.

This reminds me of something I heard a long while ago, you should ask your children how they want to be when they're older, not what they want to be.

Re: Great Quotes

#52

Post by anges244 » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 12:56 PM UTC

"I feel there's an existential angst among young people. I didn't have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb." - Sergey Brin. Maybe a little self centered but true.

Re: Great Quotes

#53

Post by tiatia » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 1:41 PM UTC

Maybe the IT guys appreciate this one:

"A complex equation describing complex data isn't a law since it does not possess simplicity" Leibnitz

Re: Great Quotes

#54

Post by cushychicken » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 2:14 PM UTC

"But camels, though odious to view and endowed with the offensive spirit, did not enjoy the blessing of pachydermaty."

- F. E. Adcock, The Greek and Macedonian Art of War

Modern translation - no matter how badass you think you are, you're still not as badass as a war elephant.

Re: Great Quotes

#55

Post by lostcolony » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 2:27 PM UTC

rokhayakebe wrote: post #34

loceng wrote: post #22

"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 m…

Unfortunately this is not a problem limited to VCs. It is everywhere apparent. Confidence, imo, is one of the top five worst words of this decade. "Girls like confident men," "Boss wants a confident problem solver," "the coach wants a confident lead player." To my kids, I will teach Courage, instead.

I think people confuse confidence with bluster.

Confidence is delivering "I don't know" with an air of acceptance.

Re: Great Quotes

#56

Post by roshanr » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 2:40 PM UTC

guiomie wrote: post #26

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.

Same here. I had no idea who Yepremian was before I read that quote. In addition to the video, Google led me to his story, which I found fascinating, particularly how he got into football:

Yepremian and his brother Krikor emigrated to the U.S. to set a foundation for their parents' arrival. At a loss for a viable life plan, Yepremian happened to watch a few minutes of a football game on television. Yepremian told Krikor he knew the key to success in America: He believed he could kick field goals for a living.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garo_Yepremian

Re: Great Quotes

#57

Post by mjklin » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 3:39 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #22

"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 m…

"The passionate state of mind is often indicative of a lack of skill, talent or power. Moreover, passionate intensity can serve as a substitute for the confidence born of proficiency and the possession of power. A workingman sure of his skill goes leisurely about his job, and accomplishes much though he works as if at play. On the other hand, the workingman who is without confidence attacks his work as if he is saving the world, and he must do it if he is to get anything done."

-- Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind

Re: Great Quotes

#58

Post by mjklin » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 3:49 PM UTC

The Strabo quote reminds me of Confucius: "Man differs from the animals only by a little; most men throw that little away."

Re: Great Quotes

#59

Post by sinemetu11 » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 4:19 PM UTC

"filter(P, S) is almost always written clearer as [x for x in S if P(x)]"

- Guido van Rossum on Python

I've always felt the opposite about the python list comprehension syntax.

Re: Great Quotes

#60

Post by wsc981 » Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 4:41 PM UTC

hristov wrote: post #24

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 crusader…

I'm personally glad the crusades happened, since the alternative would have cost a lot more suffering. The crusades were a reaction on the enchroaching of Islam on the European continent. If we'd live under muslim leadership like pretty much all Arabic country we'd have much slower progress with science, technology and human rights.

Thanks to Christianity, the Enlightment was possible in Europe. In Islamic countries a similar Enlightment would not be possible, since Muslims are not allowed to doubt Allah or change (reinterpret) the Quran making much scientific progress impossible.