Jonathan Simcoe
@jdsimcoe
Jonathan Simcoe
Einstein once said: “No worthy problem is ever solved in the plane of its original conception.”
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
He is not so mighty yet that he is above fear; nay, doubt ever gnaws him.’
J.R.R. Tolkien • The Lord of the Rings
Don’t worry, be happy. As modern people we have chosen Montaigne over Augustine. We traded pious self-cultivation for undemanding self-esteem. But is love of self really enough to be happy? You know the answer to that, dear reader. And so did Augustine.
James K. A. Smith • On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts
One good way to investigate what causes that feeling: experimentally truncate a good story before the point where its creator actually ended it. Just cut it off and observe your reaction to that imposed ending. The resulting feeling will tell us something about what’s missing. Or, conversely, about what the remaining text does supply, once we read
... See moreGeorge Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
He helped Halliday create some simple cover artwork for the game, and together, the two of them hand-copied Anorak’s Quest onto dozens of 5¼-inch floppy disks and stuck them into Ziploc bags along with a single photocopied sheet of instructions. They began selling the game on the software rack at their local computer store. Before long, they
... See moreErnest Cline • Ready Player One
Ever since Newton and Descartes, science has explicitly offered us the vision of total control. Science has claimed the power to eventually control everything, through its understanding of natural laws.