The world is combinatorially weird and fractally interesting. And therefore, omnivorous curiosity is the only proper response. ... let’s optimize instead for the interesting, the strange, and the weird. Ideas and topics that ignite our curiosity are worthy of our attention, because they might lead to advances and insights that we can’t anticipate.

I have always believed that scientific research is another domain where a form of optimism is essential to success: I have yet to meet a successful scientist who lacks the ability to exaggerate the importance of what he or she is doing, and I believe that someone who lacks a delusional sense of significance will wilt in the face of repeated experie... See more

Successful introspection of a kind that leads to innovation involves a good deal of bravery because of how much of what we sincerely like, want or are opposed to differs from what society defines as normal. Prevailing assumptions about procedures and products often contain ideas and stock responses that have drifted very far from underlying truths,

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