We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Fear of personal responsibility? Marginalization of people who think differently? Resignation to fate? Feelings of inferiority toward the rest of the world? These are traits against which the state should be acting. Instead the government strengthens them, because it is useful for it.
Here’s how to get rid of those awful bad habits:
Keeping up with the Joneses is very real. I've found that focusing on yourself and your happiness rather than Facebook and the “appearance” of those around you leads to a better overall quality of life. I know it's hard, but not letting these sort of things get to you can really make a difference.
Keeping up with Joneses will always be alive and well. Sometimes I think adulthood is nothing more than high school for grown-ups. It's sad.
The reason why I support Julian and see him as an inspiration is very simple. He proves that one individual can still stand up against the powers we all feel oppressed by.
If you can’t solve a problem, enlarge it.
Bašibozluk, bagra i brabonjci ustali da obnove Dušanovo carstvo. Srbi su samo protiv onoga ko bi hteo da ih makar malo opameti, a oduševljeno kliču svakome ko ih još više zaglupljuje, unazađuje i unesrećuje. Žalosno je što su Srbi u civilizacijskom i kulturnom pogledu ostali na nivou na kome su bili pre sto godina. Oni nisu u sukobu sa svetom, već sa samima sobom, vraćajući se na šajkaču i opanak iz kojih su jedva izašli. Bio sam i ostao Srbin, ali nisam bolesna zadribanda i Srbenda. Takvi su izdali i osramotili srpski narod i narugali se njegovoj slavnoj istoriji.
The ordinary pleasures of raising children are not often talked about, because they are unspectacular and leave no lasting trace, but they sustained me for years as our boys grew and flourished, and they continue to sustain me now. I can’t help but take pleasure in the fact that my children are thriving as I decline. It seems only fitting, a sure sign that my job in the world is done. It’s like the day Dan, then in the fourth grade, turned to me twenty yards from the school gate and said, “You can go now, Mum.” I knew then that the days of our companionable walks were over, and that as time went by there would be further signs of my superfluity, just as poignant and necessary as this one.
The problem with reverie is that you always assume you know how the unlived life turns out. And it is always a better version of the life you’ve actually lived.
The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.
Cryptography is the ultimate form of non-violent direct action… a mobile phone is a tracking device that also makes calls.
Cypherpunks
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
I think it’s highly unlikely that we ever would have gone as strongly as we did without the GNU influence,” says Bostic, looking back. “It was clearly something where they were pushing hard and we liked the idea.
Keith Bostic (of the Berkeley CSRG), openly credits Stallman with the free software push that BSD then followed with, recounting numerous discussions on copyright with Stallman when he visited Berkeley
If I could remember the names of all these particles I'd be a botanist.
Books on philosophy per se are either highly technical stuff that doesn’t matter much, or vague concatenations of abstractions their own authors didn’t fully understand (e.g. Hegel).
In economics, the tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to the group’s long-term best interests.
For instance, did you know that it is a federal crime to be in possession of a lobster under a certain size? It doesn’t matter if you bought it at a grocery store, if someone else gave it to you, if it’s dead or alive, if you found it after it died of natural causes, or even if you killed it while acting in self defense. You can go to jail because of a lobster.
If the federal government had access to every email you’ve ever written and every phone call you’ve ever made, it’s almost certain that they could find something you’ve done which violates a provision in the 27,000 pages of federal statues or 10,000 administrative regulations. You probably do have something to hide, you just don’t know it yet.
A computer is a state machine. Threads are for people who can’t program state machines.
What I find far more ominous is how seldom, today, we see the phrase “the 22nd century.” Almost never. Compare this with the frequency with which the 21st century was evoked in popular culture during, say, the 1920s.
Life with weed
A life of feeling silly and relaxed forever is one that I just narrowly avoided.