“I haven’t overheard a single intellectual conversation in three years, unless it was between Indian or Asian students.

“My biggest encouragement to those who are scared of criticism to enter the public space is this: if you don’t, the public space will be filled with people who have no fear of their failings whatsoever. And we all know what fools they are.

“We applied a red, yellow or black spot to a place on the necks of five magpies. The stickers could only be seen using a mirror. Then we gave the birds mirrors. The feel of the mark on their necks did not seem to alarm them. But when the birds with coloured neck spots caught a glimpse of themselves, they scratched at their necks—a clear indication that they recognised the image in the mirror as their own. Those who received a black sticker, invisible against the black neck feathers, did not react.

“It’s probably the best mobile application distribution method yet created, but every time I use it, a little piece of my soul dies.

“Develop products where the interactions of every user improve the site for the next user.

“When times are tight, we want to overfund.

“81 percent of us say we have a book in us. A coincidental 81 percent of young people think they have a business in them.

“Most corporations doing business in the United States pay no federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales.

“One of the chief values of print library research is its poor indexing. By drawing researchers into a wider array of articles, print browsing and perusal may have facilitated broader comparisons and scholarship.

“For a while after UIC was built, its environs were a sort of residential no-man’s-land, dangerous at night and unattractive to the young academics who taught there. Today, assistant professors at UIC generally don’t live there either, but for a different reason: They can’t afford it.