Quotes of the day

Science has done much for us; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film.--Thomas Carlyle

The whole idea of searching is that you never quite know if you are getting it right. You need constant feedback from the intended targets of your efforts, to keep adjusting and re-adjusting. This is my motivation for criticizing aid, to try to induce it to change in response to criticism on things that are clearly wrong. And this is why I myself need to listen to my own critics.--William Easterly

I’ll just sue you.--Steve Jobs

"Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?” Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. Lighthouse built applications for NeXTSTEP, the Unix based operating system whose core would become the foundation for all Mac products after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration. “And last I checked, MacOS is now built on Unix. I think Sun has a few OS patents, too.--Jonathan Schwartz

Most of the consensus favorites among tech stocks turned out to be investing disasters. But in an odd way, the Internet bubble has left all of us better off, as its benefits have percolated throughout the economy and produced huge productivity gains across all sectors. The same cannot be said for all bubbles; many homeowners aren't better off just because the real-estate frenzy put millions of people into homes they couldn't afford.--Jason Zweig

[Stanley McChrystal is] the singularly most impressive military officer I ever served with.--Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams of the elite British Special Air Service