In recent years, psychologists have come to understand religion and paranormal belief as resulting, in most people, from simple errors in reasoning. You believe in God or astrology or a purpose in life because you apply ideas about people—that they have thoughts and intentions—to the natural world. Some display this tendency more than others, but it’s there in everyone, even atheistic heathens like me.

We all deal with different forms of repression and we all get weird packets of sexual information from the culture around us. This mixed messaging makes you feel wrong no matter what you do. That goes doubly for young women, who have to deal with the Madonna-whore complex the dynamic generates.

The state, and especially an authoritarian state, is constructed like a bank: the minute that citizens-depositors lose faith, they withdraw everything of value.

How to compose a successful critical commentary:

• You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.
• You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
• You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
• Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

Nietzsche ties nihilism to “loss of confidence in our powers”, and it comes from local religious traditions being destroyed.

Why do we need patch management? -Wannacry

Why do we need credential management? -Nyetya

Why do we need backups? -Someone uses real 0day

Rationality means believing what is true, not what makes you feel good.

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:

• One at a time. Beat one bad habit per month and in a year you’ll be awesome.
• Don’t stop. Just count. Don’t eliminate the bad behavior just yet. First, be consistent in your awfulness.
• Don’t change you. Change your world. 20 second rule. Make it harder to engage in bad habits.
• Chill, dude. Stress makes the bad stuff tempting. Relax and you’ll behave better.
• Don’t eliminate. Replace. You can’t kill bad habits but you can swap them out for new ones.
• “If” and “Then.” A simple plan for how you’ll beat temptation helps you beat temptation.
• Forgive yourself. Beating yourself up makes you behave worse. Self-compassion keeps you going.

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