I remember where I came from. It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal you have to be willing to work for.

..much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

the open mode, is relaxed… expansive… less purposeful mode… in which we're probably more contemplative, more inclined to humor (which always accompanies a wider perspective) and, consequently, more playful.It's a mood in which curiosity for its own sake can operate because we're not under pressure to get a specific thing done quickly. We can play, ... See more

Do all the other things, the ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, ... See more

Westerners are often amazed at the unstructured nature of Japanese meetings but maybe it's just that very lack of structure, that absence of time pressure, that frees them to solve problems so creatively. And how clever of the Japanese sometimes to plan that un-structured-ness by, for example, insisting that the first people to give their views are... See more

Classical computer science, of the sort practiced by Turing and von Neumann and everyone after, manipulates symbols in a fashion that we think of as algebraic, and that’s what’s really at stake.

“the soul environs itself with friends, that it may enter into a grander self-acquaintance or solitude.” ~ Emerson

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you... See more

The Hummingbird was an inherently positive metaphor and his book traces dozens of examples of beneficial evolution in systems and society. But there's an inverse effect that he never touches on, where a dark idea or negative trait takes root and leads to destructive changes in systems and eventually to their death and decay. I call it the Poison Tr... See more