"Kappes and Oettingen suggest we try critical visualization, in which realistic obstacles, setbacks, and other decidedly not-so-positive factors are considered. Even failure itself, in all its rawness, should be thrown in and dabbled with as a possible outcome. As odd as it sounds, this research suggests that even random daydreaming is less deflating than positive fantasizing."

Visualize Success if You Want to Fail - Forbes

"As an editor at The Economist once noted to me, it’s actually rather more worrying if what they’re giving their children is a strong education and an absolutely ferocious work ethic. An aristocracy that simply bequeaths money and social position to its children will eventually fall. And aristocracy that bequeaths the actual skills required to earn more money than everyone else is self perpetuating."

The Tyranny of Meritocracy - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

"The illusion of asymmetric insight makes it seem as though you know everyone else far better than they know you, and not only that, but you know them better than they know themselves. You believe the same thing about groups of which you are a member. As a whole, your group understands outsiders better than outsiders understand your group, and you understand the group better than its members know the group to which they belong."

The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight « You Are Not So Smart

"One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, “Do you have any controls?” Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, “Do you mean did I not operate on half of the patients?” The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, “Yes, that’s what I had in mind.” Then the visitor’s fist really came down as he thundered, “Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their death.” God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, “Which half?"

Dr. E. E. Peacock, Jr

"In other words, now that we know the alleged perpetrator is not Muslim, we know — by definition — that Terrorists are not responsible; conversely, when we thought Muslims were responsible, that meant — also by definition — that it was an act of Terrorism."

The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of “Terrorism” - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

"I called Mom and said that it was not safe we ​​would meet again, but that I would do anything to clear me. I said several times that I loved her. I heard fear in her voice. She cried. It hurt. I sent a text message to my dad, told him I loved him."

Prableen Kaur blog: Hell on Utøya

"Most striking, I learned that there were historical precedents for exactly the sort of logical oversimplifications that characterized my AI work. Indeed, there were even precedents for my motivation in embarking on such work in the first place. I found those precedents in episodes ranging from ancient times—Plato’s fascination with math-like forms as a source of timeless truth—to the 20th century—the Logical Positivists and their quest to create unambiguous language to express sure foundations for all knowledge."

From Technologist to Philosopher - Manage Your Career - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Unfortunately I am not available to attend the session you have planned next Tuesday.” —James Murdoch"

News Desk: The Crisis In a Nutshell: Rubble and Lunch for Murdoch : The New Yorker

"A thing that’s very nice and very terrible is that those class differences are very rarely talked about at Harvard. So you might have some sort of movie image where the snobs are sort of looking down their noses at the poor kids, but the reality is that once you’re at Harvard, no one’s a poor kid anymore. You’re all, instantly and at that moment, in one of the most privileged positions of the American upper class."

Paris Review – Harvard and Class, Misha Glouberman

"I want to believe that when we stumble upon black holes of silence on the net, that depends at least in part on someone reacting against the tyranny of hyperconnection. There must be brave and smart souls who came to realize that thinking is more important than communicating,” he continued. “I see them in my mind’s eye a brave minority, sitting in silence, pondering and planning — the way it used to be."

When Your E-Mail Goes Unanswered - NYTimes.com

"This about the Internet: Anyone can walk in. And anyone can walk out. And so an online community must stay fun to stay alive. Waiting until the last resort of absolute, blatent, undeniable egregiousness - waiting as long as a police officer would wait to open fire - indulging your conscience and the virtues you learned in walled fortresses, waiting until you can be certain you are in the right, and fear no questioning looks - is waiting far too late."

Well-Kept Gardens Die By Pacifism - Less Wrong

"The Evaporative Cooling Effect is a term I learned from an excellent essay by Eliezer Yudowsky that describes a particular phenomena of group dynamics. It occurs when the most high value contributors to a community realize that the community is no longer serving their needs any more and so therefore, leave. When that happens, it drops the general quality of the community down such that the next most high value contributors now find the community underwhelming. Each layer of disappearances slowly reduces the average quality of the group until such a point that you reach the people who are so unskilled-and-unaware of it that they’re unable to tell that they’re part of a mediocre group."

Social Software Sundays #2 – The Evaporative Cooling Effect « Bumblebee Labs Blog

"But what seems to have forced his conversion is Brazil’s new fiscal-responsibility law, which came into force last May. This bans the federal government from bailing out debt-ridden states and cities, as it has done repeatedly in the past; it limits federal, state and municipal borrowing and payroll costs; and it bans politicians from leaving their successors a stack of unpaid bills. Offenders may be banned from office or even jailed."

Brazil: Fiscal prudence goes local | The Economist

"Such is the level of political distrust that many Republicans - including Michele Bachmann, the high-flying potential candidate for the White House in 2012 - say the administration is just engaged in scare tactics. Along with other rightwing Tea Party loyalists, they contend that the August 2 deadline is a myth, adding that the government can pay the interest on its loans without defaulting."

InfoViewer: US debt crunch: A nation taken to the limit