I admit it seems cowardly to keep quiet. When I read about the harassment to which the Scientologists subject their critics,12 or people branded as anti-Semitic for speaking out against Israeli human-rights abuses,13 or researchers threatened with lawsuits under the DMCA,14 part of me wants to say, “All right, you bastards, bring it on.” The

Potential buyers will always delay if they can. The hard part about getting bought is getting them to act. For most people, the most powerful motivator is not the hope of gain, but the fear of loss. For potential acquirers, the most powerful motivator is the prospect that one of their competitors will buy you.

We have a phrase to describe what happens when rankings have to be created without any meaningful criteria. We say that the situation degenerates into a popularity contest.

Mapmakers deliberately put slight mistakes in their maps so they can tell when someone copies them.

So one way to build great software is to start your own startup. There are two problems with this, though. One is that in a startup you have to do so much besides write software.

They seemed to think that hacking and painting were very different kinds of work — that hacking was cold, precise, and methodical, and that painting was the frenzied expression of some primal urge.

It turns out that looking at things from other people’s point of view is practically the secret of success.

Argue with idiots, and you become an idiot. The most important thing is to be able to think what you want, not to say what you want. And

whole company moving in one direction or another.