Category Archives: world highlighting | 反白論

Operating system 3

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No one cares what operating system you run as long as it stays up.

— Bruce Perens

That’s why the best choice of software is often no software — and barring that, as little software as you can possibly get away with, and even then, only from the most reputable and reliable sources.

— Coding Horror

— by Jeff Atwood

The greatest of rulers hardly dwells upon the minds of his subjects,
Lesser than this they forever draw near and laud him with great praise,
Lesser than this the people are held in his frightening awe and fear,
Lesser than this the people revile and curse him.
   
太上，下知有之；
其次，親而譽之；
其次畏之；
其次侮之。

— Laozi (Wikisource translation)

2011.04.16 Saturday ACHK

Crazy

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We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.

    Said to Wolfgang Pauli after his presentation of Heisenberg’s and Pauli’s nonlinear field theory of elementary particles, at Columbia University (1958), as quoted in Symposium on Basic Research (1959) by Dael Lee Wolfle, p. 66
   
   
Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.

— Niels Bohr

2011.04.14 Thursday ACHK

Founders at Work 5

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I think there’s a general principle at work here: the less energy people expend on performance, the more they expend on appearances to compensate. More often than not, the energy they expend on seeming impressive makes their actual performance worse.

In big companies, there’s always going to be more politics and less scope for individual decisions.

The time may soon be coming when instead of startups trying to seem more corporate, corporations will try to seem more like startups. That would be a good thing.

— Paul Graham

2011.04.02 Saturday ACHK

Philosophy

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      * If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science.
       
        o Ch. XV: The Value of Philosophy

— The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell

2011.02.23 Wednesday ACHK

防止被騙系統 6.2

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這段改篇自 2010 年 4 月 30 日的對話。

（CKY，CCK：我不覺得是那樣，因為我基本上不太懂數學。我覺得很多時候，我感到很深的題目，其他人都會覺得很淺。）

不一定是那樣。你可能有時是被騙了。

有些考生很奸詐，會用一些「不君子方法」去打擊對手。一方面，你不要用那些方法；另一方面，你不要被那些方法所傷。

有些科目，尤其是數學科，當你有很多題目都不懂做時，你很難分辨，那是因為自己的數學過差，還是因為該份試卷過深。所以，通常在試後，你都會跟其他考生比較一下。如果大部分人也覺得那份試卷不深的話，你會驚惶失措；如果大部分人也覺得那份試卷不淺的話，你會心安理得。

有些考生就會看準這一點，無論自己剛才考試時的表現如何，也會宣稱自己「覺得題目很淺」、「全部也懂做」，以打擊對手的信心，從而影響對手在往後科目的表現。

— Me@2011.02.16

2011.02.16 Wednesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

防止被騙系統 6.1

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這段改篇自 2010 年 4 月 30 日的對話。

當校內考試的題目異於常態時，你毋須擔心，因為只有公開試的成績，才對你的前途有決定性的影響。當公開試的題目異於常態時，你亦毋須擔心，因為「公開試」是公開的，有大量的參賽者。有奇怪題目時，不只是你要面對，而是其他大量的考生，也會遭遇同樣的困境。整體的效果是，「奇怪題目」對你的成績等級，不會有明顯的影響。

（CKY，CCK：我不覺得是那樣，因為我基本上不太懂數學。我覺得很多時候，我感到很深的題目，其他人都會覺得很淺。）

不一定是那樣。你可能有時是被騙了。

— Me@2011.02.14

2011.02.14 Monday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

樹 | 根, 2

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超世 3

樹要往高往上往光輝處生，根要往下往深往黑暗處長。

— 改篇自尼采

A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.

— Blaise Pascal

越能入世的人越能出世；越能出世的人越能入世。

— Me@2011.02.08

2011.02.13 Sunday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK

Self de-centralization

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自我虛級化 7

The history of ideas is a history of gradually discarding the assumption that it’s all about us. No, it turns out, the earth is not the center of the universe — not even the center of the solar system. No, it turns out, humans are not created by God in his own image; they’re just one species among many, descended not merely from apes, but from microorganisms. Even the concept of “me” turns out to be fuzzy around the edges if you examine it closely.

Conversely, if you have to choose between two theories, prefer the one that doesn’t center on you. This principle isn’t only for big ideas. It works in everyday life, too.

— Paul Graham

2011.01.31 Monday ACHK

Anger

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Written in anger

I once read that all good non-fiction books are written in anger.

At first I was taken aback by that. Then I realized [that] it was true.

…

If you do write a book, you are implicitly saying that the world needs this book.

Implicit in that is the accusation that the existing books are either incorrect or incomplete or both.

— How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Own How-To Book

– John T Reed

2011.01.27 Thursday ACHK  

Twelve Monkeys 2

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Themes

Memory, time, and technology

“Cole has been thrust from another world into ours and he’s confronted by the confusion we live in, which most people somehow accept as normal. So he appears abnormal, and what’s happening around him seems random and weird. Is he mad or are we?”

— Director Terry Gilliam

— Wikipedia on 12 Monkeys

2011.01.23 Sunday ACHK

Russell | Einstein

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Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.

* Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position (19 March 1940).

— Albert Einstein

2011.01.16 Sunday ACHK 

大富翁

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戴得「勞力士」o既人，都唔會係靠勞力搵食o既人士。

（戴得起「勞力士」的人，都不會是靠勞力賺錢的人士。）

— 黃子華

玩得「大富翁」o既人，都唔會係大富翁。

（玩「大富翁」遊戲的人，都不會是大富翁。）

— Me@2011.01.09

2011.01.09 Sunday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK