Mike Tyson
I could have knocked him out in the third round but I wanted to do it slowly, so he would remember this night for a long time.
I just have this thing inside me that wants to eat and conquer. Maybe it’s egotistical, but I have it in me. I don’t want to be a tycoon. I just want to conquer people and their souls.
It’s nothing personal, but I’m going to kill this guy.
On Muhammad Ali: “No man like him. There just isn’t, everything that we have, he supersedes us, even our arrogance and our ego… I’d say from the boxing perspective, Ali is a fucking animal. He looks more like a model than a fighter, but what he is, he’s like a tyrannosaurus rex with a pretty face. He’s just mean and evil, and he’ll take you to deep water and drown you. He’s very special, the best in the world.
Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.
The worst possible meeting is when the person you are meets the person you could have been.
If you were to reflect on the best moments of your life, chances are they involved other people. We feel good sharing our experiences with others, and our desire for high quality relationships may be connected to a deep-seated psychological impulse: the need to belong.
Estimated figures of money laundering have been put at between $500B-$1T per year in 2002. This would make organized crime the third largest business in the world after foreign exchange and oil.
While courting Johana, Bismarck experienced a religious conversion that was to give him inner strength and security. A subsequent critic was to remark that Bismarck believed in a God who invariably agreed with him on all issues.
In his opening speech at the Bretton Woods conference, Henry Morganthau said the “bewilderment and bitterness” resulting from the Depression became “the breeders of fascism, and finally, of war.” Proponents of the new institutions felt that global economic interaction was necessary to maintain international peace and security. The institutions would facilitate “the creation of a dynamic world community in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
The IMF would create a stable climate for international trade by harmonising its members’ monetary policies, and maintaining exchange stability. It would be able to provide temporary financial assistance to countries encountering difficulties with their balance of payments. The World Bank, on the other hand, would serve to improve the capacity of countries to trade by lending money to war-ravaged and impoverished countries for reconstruction and development projects.
When you’re wealthy, you learn to think about money differently. The first rule is to always preserve capital (money), especially that can be invested to earn more money. The second rule is always use leverage (other people’s money) when you can. The third rule is to look for the tax advantages in every transaction.
So if you have a billion dollars that is invested an earning a good rate of return, the last thing you want to do is convert it to cash to buy a yacht that will depreciate in value.
So let’s assume that Billion is earning a modest 7% return, or a cool $70M per year. As a major customer of a bank, you’ll be eligible for preferential interest rate - which is usually pretty close to the Fed fund rate (currently 2.5%). So instead of liquidating your investments and paying cash, you finance the yacht at less than 3% interest and your investments keep generating cash to pay off that loan.
Human eyes are selective, too, though magnitudes more complex than those of the frog. We think we can see “everything,” until we remember that bees make out patterns written in ultraviolet light on flowers, and owls see in the dark. The senses of every species are fine-tuned to perceive information critical to their survival - dogs hear sounds above our range of hearing, insects pick up molecular traces emitted from potential mates acres away.
We perceive only the sensations we are programmed to receive, and our awareness is further restricted by the fact that we recognize only those for which we have mental maps or categories.
The sense do not give us a picture of the world directly; rather they provide evidence for the checking of hypotheses about what lies before us.
“We were together. I forget the rest.” Maybe it’s sappy but it warms my heart.
I have so many wonderful moments with my wife and, even if I forget them, I know they are there; I feel them, even if I can’t enumerate them.
We were together. I forget the rest.
That’s all I need.
How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.
I discovered a long time ago the things about people I don’t like are the same things I don’t like about myself. It’s like a constant reminder of how imperfect I am as a person.
If you loan someone $20 and you never see them again, it was probably worth it.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes… but when we look back, everything is different.
There are three sides to every story: the right, the wrong, and the truth.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?
Everytime I’ve given without any expectation of return. Money, time, energy, whatever. Whenever I’ve expected something in return, the investment was stunted. Whenever I’ve given purely for giving, for helping, for supporting, for aiding, for encouraging - with zero expectation or interest in any return whatsoever - it’s been thoroughly fulfilling.
Don’t pay attention to what they write about you, just measure it in inches.
Knowledge is the beginning of practice; doing is the completion of knowing.
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throat.
Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.
You shouldn’t be upset if you find out that you’re bad at something - you should be happy that you found out, because knowing that and dealing with it will improve your chances of getting what you want.
Things (toys, bigger houses, money, status, etc.) don’t supply anywhere near the long-term satisfaction that getting better at something does. It is the evolution, not the rewards, that matter.
The need to have meaningful work is connected to man’s innate desire to improve.
To gain strength one has to push one’s limits, which is painful. Develop a reflexive reaction to psychic pain that causes you to reflect on it rather than avoid it. Go to the pain rather than avoid it. If you choose the healthy route, the pain will soon turn into pleasure.
Life doesn’t give a damn about what you like. It’s up to you to connect what you want with what you need to do to get it and find the courage to carry it through.
Most capitalists would probably dislike the label of religion, but as religion go, capitalism can at least hold its head high. Unlike other religions that promise us pie in the sky, capitalism promises miracles here on earth - and sometimes even delivers. Much of the credit for overcoming famine and plague belongs to the ardent capitalist faith in growth. Capitalism even deserves some kudos for reducing human violence and increasing tolerance and cooperation. These are additional factors at play here, but capitalism did make an important contribution to global harmony by encouraging people to stop viewing the economy as a zero-sum game, in which your profit is my loss, and instead see it as a win-win situation, in which your profit is also my profit. This mutual benefit approach has probably helped global harmony far more than centuries of Christian preaching about loving your neighbour and turning the other cheek.
God helps those who help themselves. This is a roundabout way of saying that God doesn’t exist, but if our belief in Him inspires us to do something ourselves - it helps.
Antibiotics, unlike God, help even those who don’t help themselves. They cure infections whether you believe in them or not.
Religion is any all-encompassing story that confers superhuman legitimacy on human laws, norms and values.
Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless.
This is the cornerstone of our investment philosophy: Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good result.
The true test of leadership is how well you function in a crisis.
And boom. It ends.
And don’t just assume all these relationships just end because they have too many options. That’s just lazy thinking.
It’s because - no matter how beautiful or stunning, talented, brilliant, she or he is, no matter how lucky you feel to be dating someone.
No matter what. No matter no matter no matter what.
You will get used to, accustomed to, normalized to - each other.
Do you know why you aren’t attracted to your sister? Because you’ve spent so much time around here. You’ve lived with her. Prolonged proximity tarnishes the shine that initially draws us in.
Many relationships begin with the two people having sex 3 times a day for months on end. And ends with months of them sitting on opposite sides of the couch not talking.
This is one of the factors that contribute to why China can make “made-in-China” goods so cheap. It is not due to the cheap labour, but cheap logistic, its scale and land costs. If you have time, please use your Google Earth to have a look at the bank of all the river networks in China, and you will find countless factories along the rivers. That also explains why Southern China is relatively more economically prosperous than Northern China.
They are human beings. They are also lovely nice people. They don’t hate you. They work hard so you can live a comfortable life. Why do you hate them? Why do you label them as racist deplorables and xenophobic bigots without even knowing how hard their lives are?
When they are losing jobs and falling into poverty, they don’t know what to do. They stay at home and turn on the TV and see Obama and Hillary speaking on ABC News: “The biggest problem our society now facing is climate change.”
They may have voted for Obama 8 years ago and hoped him to bring change to their lives, but they could only sigh when they see this. So they switch to Fox News and see Donald Trump: “We need to rebuild our inner cities, we need to bring jobs back.” They follow him and say: “Yes! Let’s make America great again!”
When they saw Obama visiting NYC after hurricane Sandy in 2012, but was playing golf when the devastating flood in Louisiana destroyed thousands of homes this summer, they knew they were forgotten.
They are the silent majorities. They live in your flyover states. They don’t care about LGBT or BLM. They are not racist or homophobic. They just want jobs to feed their families.
Please throw away your arrogance and start to care about those people. They are American too. They might be more American than you are, since many of your clients and customers are foreign.
They have no methods of let you hear them. All the medias don’t speak for them, all the celebrities don’t pay attention to them. All the career politicians don’t represent them. The only weapon they have are their ballots. They vote to knock you out of your utopia. That’s the power of democracy. That’s why democracy is great. It never ignores anyone.
The US intelligence Community is by far the most capable and well-funded in the world. I recall reading somewhere that the US alone accounts for 65% of global spending on intelligence services. I believe the idiom goes that the best defense is to not get into a fight. This idea is of great relevance, the best security that can be provided is one where all potential threats are dealt with without putting the VIP in danger, it’s better to deal with threats before they pose a threat. In this sense, the US is unrivaled, this is the real, hidden strength of the US presidential security service. There are many people who work behind the scenes to ensure that there is never an accident where the president is in immediate danger.
But perhaps the biggest thing preventing founders from realizing how attentive they could be to their users is that they’ve never experienced such attention themselves. Their standards for customer service have been set by the companies they’ve been customers of, which are mostly big ones. Tim Cook doesn’t send you a hand-written note after you buy a laptop. He can’t. But you can. That’s one advantage of being small: you can provide a level of service no big company can.
“Jaime,” she said, tugging on his ear, “sweetling, I have known you since you were a babe at Joanna’s breast. You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there’s some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak… but Tyrion is Tywin’s son, not you. I said so once to your father’s face, and he would not speak to me for half a year. Men are such thundering great fools. Even the sort who come along once in a thousand years.”
Kevan: Tywin seems a hard man to you, but he’s no harder than he’s had to be. Our own father was gentle and amiable, but so weak his bannermen mocked him in their cups. Some saw fit to defy him openly. Other lords borrowed his gold and never troubled to repay it. At court they japed of toothless lions. Even his own mistress stole from him. A woman scarcely one step above a whore, and she helped herself to my mother’s jewels! It fell to Tywin to restore House Lannister to its proper place. Just as it fell to him to rule this realm, when he was no more than twenty. He bore that heavy burden for twenty years and all it earned him was a mad king’s envy. Instead of the honor he deserved, he was made to suffer slights beyond count, yet he gave the Seven Kingdoms peace, plenty and justice. He is a just man.
Tyrion: You love him.
Kevan: He is my brother.
I have served six kings, but here before us lies the greatest man I ever knew. Lord Tywin wore no crown, yet he was all a king should be.
Men say Tywin never smiled, but he smiled when he wed your mother, and when Aerys made him Hand. When Tarbeck Hall came crashing down on Lady Ellyn, that scheming bitch, Tyg claimed he smiled then, and he smiled at your birth, Jaime, I saw with my own eyes.
My betrothal was announced at a feast with half the west in attendance. Ellyn Tarbeck laughed and the Red Lion went angry from the hall. The rest sat on their tongues. Only Tywin dared speak against the match. A boy of ten. Father turned as white as mare’s milk, and Walder Frey was quivering. How could I not love him after that? That is not to say I approved of all he did, or much enjoyed the company of the man he became … but every little girl needs a big brother to protect her. Tywin was big even when he was little.
In his Inaugural Address, the 41st President of the United States said this: “We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it. What do we want the men and women who work with us to say when we are no longer there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?”
- Appealing to the other person’s highest ideals
- Remembering the other person’s name
- Letting the other person do most of the talking
- Speaking in terms of the other person’s interests
- Allowing the other to save face, by “throwing down a challenge,”
When Hippocrates said that “life is short, art is long,” he did not mean that art outlives the artist. The “father of medicine” instead diagnosed a basic fact of life: true art or skill takes a lifetime of effort to perfect, and the path is fraught with “occasional crises, perilous experiences, and difficult judgments.” Technology is the “art” at the forefront of our changing world, and we’re here to chronicle that story and even help with the difficult judgments.
At Ars Technica—the name is Latin-derived for the “art of technology”—we specialize in news and reviews, analysis of technology trends, and expert advice on topics ranging from the most fundamental aspects of technology to the many ways technology is helping us discover our world. We work for the reader who not only needs to keep up on technology, but is passionate about it.
My opinion of this decision aside, it’s important that people understand the parameters of the debate. There are three very distinct things at play here. There are the abstract concepts of file type and creator. What kind of data does this file contain? Which application created this file? Then there’s the concrete representation of this information: classic Mac OS type and creator codes, UTIs, and bundle identifiers. Finally, there’s the Launch Services application binding policy which may or may not reference any of these pieces of information when determining which application to use to open a file when it’s double-clicked in the Finder.
Let me repeat that list because it’s important: file type and creator as abstract concepts, their concrete representations, and the application binding policy based on them. Concept, representation, policy. These are three separate things. Conflating them leads to misplaced anger, unreasonable demands, and unhelpful recommendations.
I pored over that magazine for years, long after the technical and product information it contained was useless. It was the Macintosh team that fascinated me. That’s why I’d chosen to cut out this particular picture, not a photo of the hardware or software. After seeing the Macintosh and then reading this issue of Macworld, I had an important realization in my young life: people made this.
The Macintosh was the first thing in my life that I recognized as being wholly new. Everything I’d seen thus far in my nine years had seemed like it already existed prior to my birth—perhaps like it had always existed. But here was something different, something amazing, and this magazine explained how it had been created by this small group of people.
The implications bloomed in my mind. We aren’t stuck with the things we have now. We can make new things, better things. And it doesn’t take many people to do it. The team that had created this mind-bending new machine were all up on my wall, their individual faces clearly recognizable.
By this point in my life, I’d also had enough experience with government, corporations, and academic bureaucracies to understand what happens to organizations as they get larger. The middle-managers and empire-builders start to take root. Each problem results in a new guideline or process meant to prevent the problem from ever occurring again. Metrics are added, because managers can’t manage what they can’t measure. Individual incentives shift so far from the stated corporate goal that they actively work against it. Intrinsic motivation wanes. The ability to do truly great work all but disappears.
“The people who are doing the work are the motivating force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.”
He ends nostalgically, a wizened veteran of the tech industry at the ripe old age of 29, contemplating the future of the Macintosh team. “The group might stay together maybe for one more iteration of the product, and then they’ll go their separate ways. For a very special moment, all of us have come together to make this new product. We feel this may be the best thing we’ll ever do with our lives.”
For my non-American readers: most US college departments have a course numbered “101” which is the basic introductory course for any field. Econ 101 management is the style used by people who know just enough economic theory to be dangerous.
The Econ 101 manager assumes that everyone is motivated by money, and that the best way to get people to do what you want them to do is to give them financial rewards and punishments to create incentives.
The drawbacks are obvious. Knowing what’s wrong with something (or thinking that you do, which, for the purposes of this discussion, should be considered the same thing) does a fat lot of good if you lack the skills to correct it. And thinking that you know what’s wrong with everything requires significant impulse control if you want to avoid pissing off everyone you meet.
But much worse than that, it means that everything you ever create appears to you as an accumulation of defeats. “Here’s where I gave up trying to get that part right and moved on to the next part.” Because at every turn, it’s apparent to you exactly how poorly executed your work-in-progress is, and how far short it will inevitably fall when completed. But surrender you must, at each step of the process, because the alternative is to never complete anything—or to never start at all.