Category: Quotes

We’re Not All That: High School is America in miniature

High school is just a bunch of scared people pretending they’re not.
—Cameron Kweller portrayed by Tanner Buchanan in He’s All That (Netflix, 2021)

While not exact, this quote is incredibly similar in tone to a quote from a columnist in June 1928, which has been oft repeated and slightly modified since including versions by Will Rogers and in Fight Club.

Americanism: Using money you haven’t earned to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like.
—Robert Quillen, The Detroit Free Press, Page 6, Column 4, Detroit, Michigan. June 4, 1928

It’s all about image and being what we’re not.

Apparently the message of the original film She’s All That was completely lost. I’m not sure the current incarnation of this remake will be an inflection point either.

Quoted Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else by Jordan Ellenberg (Penguin Press)
You don’t make a bagel by first baking a bialy and then punching out the center. No—you roll out a snake of dough and join the ends together to form the bagel. If you denied that a bagel has a hole, you’d be laughed out of New York City, Montreal, and any self-respecting deli worldwide. I consider this final.
Not exactly a QED sort of proof, but I’ll take it as an axiom. 🙂

An Euclidean Declaration

So far, my favorite part of Jordan Ellenberg‘s new book Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else is this footnoted observation:

“we hold these truths to be self-evident” wasn’t Jefferson’s line; his first draft of the Declaration has “we hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable.” It was Ben Franklin who scratched out those words and wrote “self-evident” instead, making the document a little less biblical, a little more Euclidean.

Quoted by Jeremy KeithJeremy Keith (adactio.com)

I love my website. Even though it isn’t a physical thing, I think it might be my most prized possession.

It’s a place for me to think and a place for me to link.

A stark statement to make about one’s website. I feel exactly the same way.
 
 
Replied to a tweet by Kevin M. Kruse (Twitter)
Let’s be honest. If you’re going to have someone sign a Dr. Seuss book that isn’t Theodor Geisel, at least get someone truly consequential—and for a good reason.

Front inside cover of Dr. Seuss' book Green Eggs and Ham with Sam and a plate of food on the right and an inscription dated 11/19/94 "Chris, Keep Hope Alive!" above the signature of Jesse Jackson

Quoted a tweet by WP Buffs (@thewpbuffs) (Twitter)

This should be fantastic! I can’t wait.

Quoted a tweet (Twitter)
Noted homophobe Joseph Epstein adds the title “noted misogynist” to his CV and ultimate gravestone, presuming anyone would bother to erect a monument to such trash.

Unless he’s a close childhood friend of Dr. Biden, he’s not even remotely entitled to call her either Jill much less “kiddo”. Much like Bill Cosby and Charlie Rose, who he cites, he should be stripped of his valueless honorary doctorate and his emeritus title at Northwestern.

I was contemplating and wavering on subscribing to the Wall Street Journal for the past month. This garbage makes it a firm no.

Quoted a tweet by Amy CollierAmy Collier (Twitter)
There are some great resources and material here. Signing up today.

User Interfaces for Networked Thought

actually kind of wonder why no one used that analogy before: feed readers, kind of like email clients except there’s no reply button

Tantek Çelik (), in IndieWeb Chat

Feed reader as email with no reply button is like the definition of blogging as email with no “to” field.

Kevin Marks (), in IndieWeb Chat

These two quotes provide an interesting framing for comparing and contrasting the UI and functionality for the way that feed readers, email, and blogging (or more broadly networked thinking and communication) work.

Modern social readers provide a reply button and functionality along with the broadcast capabilities. Throw in the idea of person-tagging, and one has the ability to generally broadcast a message to anyone who cares to read (either by search or subscription), as well as to send notifications to specific people (or perhaps groups) that might be interested in the specific message.

Quoted The Californian Ideology by Richard Barbrook & Andy Cameron (Mute)
We need to debate what kind of hypermedia suit our vision of society - how we create the interactive products and on-line services we want to use, the kind of computers we like and the software we find most useful. We need to find ways to think socially and politically about the machines we develop. While learning from the can-do attitude of the Californian individualists, we also must recognise that the potentiality of hypermedia can never solely be realised through market forces. We need an economy which can unleash the creative powers of hi-tech artisans. Only then can we fully grasp the Promethean opportunities of hypermedia as humanity moves into the next stage of modernity. ❧
As true today as it was 25 years ago.
Liked There's a light over in the IndieWeb space by Jason YavorskaJason Yavorska (metaluna.io)

In the end, I'm really glad the IndieWeb is out there as a kind of light in the darkness of what can otherwise seem like a more or less completely corporate daily web experience. It's weird in a good way. It's not corporate at all. It's rough around the edges and not tuned for maximum engagement. There are interesting people.. I've already connected with a few who are doing all kinds of creative things.

I feel like I've found a cozy little corner where people are following their passion, connecting with each other, and building creative things together. Long live the IndieWeb!

Read Seneca on Gathering Ideas And Combinatorial Creativity (Farnam Street)
“Combinatory play,” said Einstein, “seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” Ruminating on the necessity of both reading and writing, so as not to confine ourselves to either, Seneca in one of his Epistles, advised that we engage in Combinatorial Creativity — that is, gath...

“Combinatory play,” said Einstein, “seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” ❧

excellent quote

Annotated on May 20, 2020 at 12:17AM

cull the flowers ❧

definitely reminiscent of the idea of floriligeum (or anthology)

Annotated on May 20, 2020 at 12:19AM

The Loeb Classic Library collection of Seneca’s Epistles in three volumes (1-65, 66-92, and 92-124), should be read by all in its entirety. Of course, if you don’t have time to read them all, you can read a heavily curated version of them. ❧

Annotated on May 20, 2020 at 12:21AM