Quote of the day -- Sir Edmund Hillary

"For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton."

— Sir Edmund Hillary, quoted in Leading at the Edge by Dennis N. T. Perkins

Harvard Business Review -- lessons of Steve Jobs

From HBR:

1. Focus
2. Simplify
3. Take Responsibility End to End
4. When Behind, Leapfrog
5. Put Products Before Profits
6. Don’t Be a Slave To Focus Groups
7. Bend Reality
8. Impute
9. Push for Perfection
10. Tolerate Only “A” Players
11. Engage Face-to-Face
12. Know Both the Big Picture and the Details
13. Combine the Humanities with the Sciences
14. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Article written by Walter Isaacson, author of the recent autobiography.

Fwd: Conversation with Peter Thiel/Planning for the future as a culture

The last comment is the kicker for me.

Some comments by entrepreneur Peter Thiel, interviewed by author� Francis
Fukuyama:

I think there's a close link between technological deceleration and
increasing cynicism and pessimism about politics and economics.

We should debate whether it should be decentralized or centralized, but
what the United States has today is an extremely big government, a
quasi-socialist government, but without a five-year plan, with no plan
whatsoever.

If there is going to be a government role in getting innovation started,
people have to believe philosophically that it's possible to plan.
That's not the world we're living in. A letter from Einstein to the
White House would get lost in the mail room today. Nobody would think that
any single person would have that kind of expertise.

It's much harder to get a new drug through the FDA process. It takes a
billion dollars. I don't even know if you could get the polio vaccine
approved today.

I'm deeply skeptical about any sort of rationalization of death.

When I taught at Stanford Law School last year, I asked students what they
planned to do with their lives. Most were headed to big law firms but
didn't expect to become partners and didn't know the next step after
that. They didn't have long-term plans about what they wanted to achieve
in their lives. I think the educational system has become a major factor
stopping people from thinking about the future.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1187

It also reminds me of the insight* that the US is thinking about the next
quarter, Japan is thinking about the next 10 years, and China is thinking
about the next 100 years.

*I think it was James Clavell, or maybe Michael Crichton . . . .

Original summary came from Kurzweil's blog:

http://www.kurzweil

Le vent (ballet super slow motion)

Navy test-fires weaponized railgun with explosive results (video) -- Engadge

http://m.engadget.com/default/article.do?artUrl=http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/29/railgun-test-fire-video/&category=classic&postPage=1

Thanks, Charlie.

Letters of Note -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald's letter to his daughter at camp about "Things to Worry About" from the wonderful, wonderful website -- Letters of Note
Three things in this post are perfect: 1) his daughter's haircut, 2) his list of things to worry about, and 3) his list of things not to worry about.

Definitely go to their site to read the whole letter.  However, I had to copy out this part:

P.S. My come-back to your calling me Pappy is christening you by the word Egg, which implies that you belong to a very rudimentary state of life and that I could break you up and crack you open at my will and I think it would be a word that would hang on if I ever told it to your contemporaries. "Egg Fitzgerald." How would you like that to go through life with — "Eggie Fitzgerald" or "Bad Egg Fitzgerald" or any form that might occur to fertile minds? Try it once more and I swear to God I will hang it on you and it will be up to you to shake it off. Why borrow trouble?

Epic.

Two Step - Dave Matthews Band

A perfect Dave Matthews song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVZR6UACT8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nine-year-old ski jumper screws up courage

Nine-year-old ski jumper screws up courage

This video shows a fourth grader trying a bigger ski jump for the first time.

#cryingatwork (via devour)

Tags: skiing   sports   video

Quote of the Day -- Confucius on the Rectification of Names

“A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve. If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.

Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect.”  [Via Wikipedia]

          Confucius, Analects, Book XIII, Chapter 3, verses 4-7, translated by James Legge

Reproduction of Priviledge

Very disturbing article from NYTimes about college as a way to reinforce and perpetuate class distinctions.

Quote of the Day -- St. Augustine

“Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth.” -- St. Augustine

What's Inside the Box

Excellent essay by Cory Doctorow

Give it Five Minutes

When someone says something with which I disagree -- I should give it five minutes:


He said “Man, give it five minutes.” I asked him what he meant by that? He said, it’s fine to disagree, it’s fine to push back, it’s great to have strong opinions and beliefs, but give my ideas some time to set in before you’re sure you want to argue against them. “Five minutes” represented “think”, not react. He was totally right. I came into the discussion looking to prove something, not learn something.  -- Jason Fried



"I have recently discovered the same thing about myself, so I've started forcing myself to ask the other person at least three questions about their opinion. Forming those questions helps me think. Often, my gut negative opinion changes. Sometimes, the questions change the other person's opinion. There is no downside." -- Dustin Curtis

Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice

Another Park Another Sunday -- Doobie Brothers

Hope Springs Eternal

Know, then, thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

– Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

Powers of 10 remake

Web version of Powers of 10 (thanks, Stephanie!)

Long David Foster Wallace Interview

http://www.openculture.com/2012/02/david_foster_wallace_the_big_uncut_interview_2003.html

How the NFL might end

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Writing for Grantland, economists Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier imagine how the NFL might end due to the increasing visibility of head injuries.

This slow death march could easily take 10 to 15 years. Imagine the timeline. A couple more college players -- or worse, high schoolers -- commit suicide with autopsies showing CTE. A jury makes a huge award of $20 million to a family. A class-action suit shapes up with real legs, the NFL keeps changing its rules, but it turns out that less than concussion levels of constant head contact still produce CTE. Technological solutions (new helmets, pads) are tried and they fail to solve the problem. Soon high schools decide it isn't worth it. The Ivy League quits football, then California shuts down its participation, busting up the Pac-12. Then the Big Ten calls it quits, followed by the East Coast schools. Now it's mainly a regional sport in the southeast and Texas/Oklahoma. The socioeconomic picture of a football player becomes more homogeneous: poor, weak home life, poorly educated. Ford and Chevy pull their advertising, as does IBM and eventually the beer companies.

Whitney Houston’s isolated vocal track

Whitney Houston’s isolated vocal track on "How Will I Know?"

from Jake Fogelnest

My favorite, however, will always be "Greatest Love of All."