Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Three

I find quotations profound. They quickly reframe (however slightly) the world I’ve seen but never articulated as perfectly as they have.

A well-turned phrase can stop me in my tracks, distilling what I've sensed but never fully grasped in a few words.

Quotations are like keys that suddenly unlock a door to understanding. They provide that little ‘aha’ moment, allowing epiphanies to take root. I'm always amazed at how the right combination of words can convey layers of meaning in a concise, poetic way.

The best aphorisms are scalpels cutting to the core of an issue with elegant economy. They resonate because they give voice to our innermost feelings and ideas. A good quotation takes flight in the mind and allows our understanding to float on the wind.

A great quotation articulates some essential truth about living that I've long felt intuitively but never fully grasped consciously.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

“Travel in your youth. Cultivate your garden in retirement. In between, make a difference.” - Unknown

“When asked, “Does that mean writing can be taught? Can it be learned? It can be learned, but I’m not sure it can be taught.” - Stephen King. Someone who used to be an English teacher.”

“The education system fails because It conflates regurgitation for understanding.” - Unknown

"You're a book - sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after you’ve finished just to stay near it.”- Unknown

“I think more than anything people want honesty, sincerity, transparency and vulnerability.”- Unknown

“Words carry colors and sounds into the flesh” - Anais Nin

“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.” - Paulo Coelho

“There are some people who could hear you speak a thousand words, and still not understand you. And there are others who will understand. without you even speaking a word.” - Yasmin Mogahed

“The mind I love must have wild places.” - Katherine Mansfield

“Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?” - Charles Bukowski

“Is there no way out of the mind?” - Sylvia Plath

“In your life, you meet people. Some you never think about again. Some, you wonder what happened to them. There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again. But you do.” - C.S. Lewis

"Why is it so hard to get people to write shit down?" - I Said That

“Be the love you wish to receive.” - Alex Elle

“Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

“Art is to console those who are broken by life.” - Vincent Van Gogh

“Something about the Golden Gate Bridge can only be understood when you feel the Pacific Ocean wind and shiver under a blanket of fog. Something about the life of Moses can only be understood when you stand atop Mount Nebo (where he died) and look down at the Promised Land of Israel. Something about Italian food can only be understood when you slurp “siero” in a Parmesan cheese factory and meet the 4th-generation shop owner.” - Unknown

“Pixels on a screen aren’t enough.” - Unknown

Populism - A thin-centred ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic camps, "the pure people" versus "the corrupt elite", and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people.

Ernest Hemingway

“The best people have sensitivity to beauty, the courage to take risks, the rigor to tell the truth, the ability to sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often hurt, sometimes destroyed." -Ernest Hemingway

If you’re a writer, you will write a lot of unoriginal work before you write something original. And the time and effort expended on that unoriginal work aren’t wasted; on the contrary, I would suggest that it is precisely what enables you to create something original eventually. The hours spent choosing the right word and rearranging sentences to follow one another better teach you how prose conveys meaning.

Using A.I. to automate work tasks comes with a cost — we forfeit any value inherent to the process of those tasks, the value we reap when we do it ourselves in many cases, that might be a more-than-okay trade. But other times, it might not be.

Let’s be attentive to those costs, to what we give up. When we struggle — to write, design, code, create, think—and overcome that struggle, we gain something in return. A.I. can make work more accessible, but easy isn’t the only thing that matters.

“Le persone migliori possiedono sensibilità per la bellezza, il coraggio di rischiare, il rigore di dire la verità, la capacità di sacrificio. Ironia della sorte, le loro virtù le rendono vulnerabili; sono spesso ferite, talvolta distrutte.” - Ernest Hemingway

"The best people have sensitivity to beauty, the courage to take risks, the rigor of telling the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; are often wounds, sometimes destroyed." - Ernest Hemingway

Meta vs Apple

Meta is in the business of creating connections and monetizing personal data. It always has been.

It’s a highly lucrative business, and attempting to own the metaverse by creating platforms like Horizon Worlds is another step toward that agenda. It needs scale for it to be a good experience for any user.

On the other hand, Apple is in the business of creating the interface for the individual. It always has been. It is attempting to slowly but surely dominate access humans have to any digital world.

Whatever Happened At Kodak

In 1975, a Kodak engineer, Steve Sasson, created the first digital camera.

“When somebody provokes your anger, the only reason you get angry is because you’re holding on to how you think something is supposed to be. You’re denying how it is. Then you see it’s the expectations of your own mind that are creating your own hell. When you get frustrated because something isn’t the way you thought it would be, examine the way you thought, not just the thing that frustrates you. You’ll see that a lot of your emotional suffering is created by your models of how you think the universe should be and your inability to allow it to be as it is.” - Ram Dass