Quote Bag January 2024

My father defended a lot of murderers — his favorite clients, because he said they had generally got rid of the one person on earth who was really bugging them, and a kind of peace had descended over them

You’re reading this right now. You’re here reading this because you either found me on substack or on twitter. You’re addicted to your phone—but, much more than for most people, your phone addiction consists largely of reading text.

wherever you walk, seek out changes in elevation. The paths that follow the contours of the land, or confront them head-on, are almost always more rewarding to walk than those on flat ground. Keep a topographic map handy as you navigate.

The secret is that there is no secret; Singapore simply tries. It applies Western methods of government with a genuine focus on competence and results i.e. meritocracy... An important additional question after meritocracy is that of commerce. Singaporeans really believe in it:

Starting on January 19, 2025 Facebook's internal policy makers decided that Linux is malware and labelled groups associated with Linux as being "cybersecurity threats". Any posts mentioning DistroWatch and multiple groups associated with Linux and Linux discussions have either been shut down or had many of their posts removed.

I think if you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1 race. No need for corny art singing tribute to the worker or even for the Manifesto. Never before had I seen so many wealthy people gathered all in one place. If a tornado came through and wiped the whole thing out, the stock market would plummet and the net worth of a country the size of Slovenia would vanish from the ledgers in a day.

How can you be someone with a project, with ambitions, with taste and aspirations…and not make yourself wildly, neurotically unhappy?