Life Tip: When you’re thinking about buying something you don’t necessarily need, imagine the item in one hand and the cash in the other.
Which one would you take?

https://twitter.com/GetWiser/status/1444515665961005057

#Quote #mjbQuote

“I woke with this conclusion from Skin in the Game: 1) Things work thanks to a handful of people; the rest operates by situational imitation, narrow mimicry, and semi-conscious role-playing.”

https://twitter.com/TalebWisdom/status/1488850359787429889

On Censorship and Control;

“Push them a little further and they’ll invoke “family values”, a phrase that more and more frequently makes me feel like falling to the floor and projectile vomiting. Censorship and the suppression of reading materials is rarely about family values and almost always about control. Who is snapping the whip, who is saying “no”, and who is saying “go”. Censorship’s bottom line is this: if the novel Christine offends me, I don’t want to just make sure it’s kept from my kid, I want to make sure it’s kept from your kid as well. And all the kids.

This bit of intellectual arrogance — undemocratic and as old as time — is best expressed this way: If it’s bad for me and my family, it’s bad for everyone’s family. Yet when books are run out of school classrooms and even out of school libraries as a result of this idea, I’m never much disturbed. Not as a citizen, not as a writer, not even as a schoolteacher, which I was trained to be and used to do. What I tell the kids is don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead run — don’t walk — to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore, and get whatever it was they banned. Read what they’re trying to keep out of your eyes. Read what they’re trying to keep out of your brain. Because that’s exactly what you need to know.”

—Stephen King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-rrg2MRUGA

h/t: Daring Fireball, https://daringfireball.net/2022/01/attempted_censorship_three_acts

#Reading #KnowledgeIsPower #mjbReading

On Censorship and Control;

“Push them a little further and they’ll invoke “family values”, a phrase that more and more frequently makes me feel like falling to the floor and projectile vomiting. Censorship and the suppression of reading materials is rarely about family values and almost always about control. Who is snapping the whip, who is saying “no”, and who is saying “go”. Censorship’s bottom line is this: if the novel Christine offends me, I don’t want to just make sure it’s kept from my kid, I want to make sure it’s kept from your kid as well. And all the kids.

This bit of intellectual arrogance — undemocratic and as old as time — is best expressed this way: If it’s bad for me and my family, it’s bad for everyone’s family. Yet when books are run out of school classrooms and even out of school libraries as a result of this idea, I’m never much disturbed. Not as a citizen, not as a writer, not even as a schoolteacher, which I was trained to be and used to do. What I tell the kids is don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead run — don’t walk — to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore, and get whatever it was they banned. Read what they’re trying to keep out of your eyes. Read what they’re trying to keep out of your brain. Because that’s exactly what you need to know.”

—Stephen King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-rrg2MRUGA

h/t: Daring Fireball, https://daringfireball.net/2022/01/attempted_censorship_three_acts

Best advice on reading, I ever received:

If a book sucks, you can stop reading it. Just wanted you to know that.

https://twitter.com/RyanHoliday/status/1488240787884232704

#Reading #mjbReading

“So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.”

“You must tell yourself, ‘No matter how hard it is, or how hard it gets, I’m going to make it.”

“How many times have you typed “I’m fine.” with shaky fingertips and bloodshot eyes?”

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.

-Elie Wiesel

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.