—via kottke.

You’ve got to realize that influence is not influence. It’s simply someone’s idea going through my new mind.

—Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Jean-Michel Basquiat

—via @ap00rv

—via kottke

For sure, quality is king. But I think the new push for quality content is not a result of people intuitively deciding they need it. My opinion is that it’s a direct response to a realization that much of the content out there is just not that valuable.

…

I’m coming to realize that the internet in all its forms (my computer, my devices, even the television) is simply a place. And I can only be in one place at a time. When I’m sitting in a room with my 2 year old daughter who wants to read a book and I’m checking my phone every five minutes, I’m not in that room. So my goal is to be as fully present as I can, all the time, no matter what I’m doing.

…

I read a great book a few years ago that has become foundational to how I view a lot of the world, called A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. Without giving away the cookies before dinner, he basically makes the case that the world is transitioning into a new Age. There was the Industrial Revolution, and then the Information Age, and now, he thinks, we are entering into the Conceptual Age. Specifically, he claims things like design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning are beginning to take on the most value in our economic system.

A friend, over breakfast: “I program, but I’m not ‘a programmer’.” You don’t need to be obsessed with technology to do amazing work with it.

—@al3x

Do not educate them, or expose them to critical thinking, logic or science.

Lie to them constantly about how the world works. Feed them a steady diet of mumbo jumbo dressed up like real knowledge – the jumbo jet in the whirlwind for example – and pretend that it is deep wisdom.

Make them loathe their own natural bodies and functions. Convince them they are small and weak and worthless and need redemption. Tell them everything enjoyable is grievously wrong to even think about, and that their only fun should be in grovelling to an invisible friend.

Ensure that they resent anyone who is not like them in every way – skin color, nationality, political opinion but especially creed. Make such people out to be evil and vile and give them – impotent minorities all – the fictional power to somehow oppress and persecute the vast majority who do think like you.

Teach them to laugh at and dismiss out of hand any faith but their own. Early – early mind you – make sure they are taught the difference between superstitious deadly error – that one raving lunatic in the desert told the truth about a vicious god who killed people, and divine eternal truth – that another raving lunatic in the desert told the truth about a vicious god who killed people.

Instruct them with all severity and import to never question for themselves – to never think for themselves – to never live for themselves – but to seek answers only in one – just one – particular set of semi-literate bronze age folk tales.

Above all – and this cannot be overemphasized – make sure they cannot spell, use correct grammar, or understand basic English words.

That should do the trick.

—What is the best way to stop your child becoming an atheist?, David M

Even when you’re not winning, you’re not necessarily losing. Do your best, and wait for your moment to come.

—Life Lessons from Rafael Nadal, Tim Ricchuiti

“Just make people better at something they want to be better at.”

—Pixie Dust & The Mountain of Mediocrity, Kathy Sierra

Plants have thorns to protect them. {…} The thorns are not attacking you. They are protecting them.

—Kate Nasser

“It’s important to bullshit kids, so that they don’t grow up trusting adults.”

—cromulent

It’s through building the habits of a constant effort towards empathy, non-dismissal and perspective shifting that we designers become more aware of motivations behind use cases in products we create or use. Without understanding the psychology and motivations of use, it’s nearly impossible to create genuine interfaces. And without real empathy, you’re often left with surface design and no substance.

—Twitter Archives and the Sendai Quake, Craig Mod

“The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.”

—Calvin

“I hate when I’ve been drinking and it gets to the point late at night where I start to miss someone.”

—kathrynsoloway

“She wants to know if I love her. That’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there, like new batteries in the flashlight in the emergency kit in the hall closet.”

—Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer