“Using external libraries is awesome when it makes your work easier, but it’s much less impressive when it just circumvents ignorance.

“One often-talked-about event in the history of IRC is the gulf war. In early 1991 [3 years after the birth of IRC], live reports were available and more than 300 concurrent users were experienced for the first time.

“For me, the Crimean War is the “perfect” war. Started for obscure reasons, hopelessly murderous, and accomplishing nothing. Even the charge of the Light Brigade was a senseless exercise.

“If your life is [all] strategy you will be unhappy.

“You are not really diversified unless you own something you’re uncomfortable with.

A hedge is something you hold and hope you’re wrong.

“It is cities that compete, not countries.

“Negative stereotypes about aging can actually shorten your life. Research has found that memory studies can intimidate elderly subjects into performing poorly. They score higher on memory tests if they aren’t explicitly told that the study is about memory and aging. They score worse on memory tests after reading a pessimistic newspaper account about aging and memory than those who read a cheerful article about growing older.

Another factor: Social support makes both men and women less vulnerable to health problems. People over 60 who described themselves as lonely were particularly at risk.

“Enterprise 2.0, when seen through the hypnotizing screen of the BlackBerry, does not amount to the liberation of corporate systems by personal systems but rather the colonization of personal systems by corporate systems. Society becomes a social network. My pocket vibrates, therefore I am.

“A species is defined as a set of individuals who can breed only with each other. The restriction on breeding doesn’t have to be genetic, it can be based on compatibility of belief system, or on connection within a social network. As our population grows and technology causes greater and greater variation, mankind is starting to speciate.

“Increasing variation in productivity is a good thing. In a low-tech society you don’t see much variation in productivity. If you have a tribe of nomads collecting sticks for a fire, how much more productive is the best stick gatherer going to be than the worst? A factor of two? Whereas when you hand people a complex tool like a computer, the variation in what they can do with it is enormous.

If your society has no variation in productivity, it’s probably not because everyone is Thomas Edison. It’s probably because you have no Thomas Edisons.