“People apparently only read mystery stories of any length. With mysteries, the longer the better and people will read any damn thing. But the indulgent, 800-page books like The Brothers Karamazov or Moby-Dick of a hundred years ago are just not going to be read anymore.”
— Cormac McCarthy. Contrast Jeff Bezos.
“Frank Curiel Field in Curaçao looks like every small-town baseball field you've ever seen. But it's filled with primal cues, a window through which kids can see the ascending realms of heaven stacked above them in neat levels. First comes making the league all-star team (one of those guys). Then playing for Williamsport (those guys). Then just above that is getting signed by a scout, playing in the major leagues (being one of those guys). For a six-year old at this field, these aren't gauzy dreams; they are tangible steps on a primal ladder of selection reflected in the crackle of the radio, the clutter of the trophies, the glint of the scout's sunglasses. It is sort of like standing in the Sistine Chapel. The proof of paradise is right here: all you have to do is open your eyes.”
—Daniel Coyle. Curaçao has been to six of the last eight semifinals at the Little League World Series.
“Search is broken like browsers were broken in 2002.”
— Asa Dotzler of Firefox doesn't like Google Read more →
“Startups operate in a financial system that is inefficient, illiquid, and challenging to manage. More transactions of any kind or size help improve overall startup ecosystem health. Liquidity and transparency serve to grow the market and reward founders more richly.”
— Dave McClure. A more detailed model from Fred Wilson.
“Keep interest rates low so that people spend rather than hoarding—but only so long as there is involuntary unemployment. When an economy no longer has involuntary unemployment, further efforts to stimulate demand will merely cause inflation and asset bubbles.”
—Richard Posner paraphrasing John Maynard Keynesi. See also Aaron Swartz.
“Keynes’s great insight was that jobs are not like other goods. The people who get bought are also the people doing the buying. Reduced demand for jobs causes people to cut back on expenses, spiralling into further job reductions where other goods reduce prices to equilibrium.”
— Aaron Swartz paraphrased
“My job as a user experience designer has evolved. While it’s still my responsibility to prevent things from sucking, now it’s also my responsibility to add a little playfulness.
You can’t build playfulness into your designs without experiencing playfulness yourself. Play games and pay attention to what makes them fun.”
— Fred Beecher. Trevor Blackwell calls this tinkering.
“If we look at the percentage of overall labour force that is self-employed, the US ranks near the bottom among high-income countries. The likely explanation: our lack of national health insurance.”
“The ideal forum: a bunch of people who are individually working away on their own personal projects. Each participant has a vested interest; he or she needs to deliver results first, and is discussing it with others only second.”