God Speaks Daily

When a psychiatrist rewards rats for finishing a maze, is it the psychiatrist who is training the rats to finish mazes, or the rats who are training him to give them cheese. The answer to that question hinges on who controls the experiment.

Daniel Greenfield in Three Fundamental Mistakes in Dealing with Islam

At a recent train club event someone came up to me and said, “Dick doesn’t like you.”

I replied, “That doesn’t concern me.”

The helpful gossip then tried to start telling me why Dick doesn’t like me. I interrupted, and again said, “That doesn’t concern me.”

Yet again he started explaining Dick’s reasons for disliking me.

I stopped him and said, “Think about this. . .

There are about 200 members of this club. About 10 of those members are close friends. 189 members get along with me well. They are either indifferent or just haven’t got to know me well. 1 member – Dick – doesn’t like me.

Which group of people should I spend my time thinking about?

Note: to those of you who belong to the train club. I changed the names here. I don’t think there is anyone named Dick in the club since Dick G. moved away years ago.

When you want to know how things work study them when they’re coming apart.

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. – Jonathan Swift.

Knowledge is reached (mostly) by removing junk from people’s heads.

Nicholas Taleb in the book “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”

Another great line from the same book is, “Today, we mostly face the choice between those who write clearly about a subject they don’t understand and those who write poorly about a subject they don’t understand.”