Category: random

273 quotes stacked full of life wisdom

For the last 8 to 10 years, I’ve kept a list of the best quotes I’ve seen, heard, or read. Providing little value sitting in my notes app, its time to share them with the world:

  1. Only the dead see the end of war. Plato
  2. We were born in darkness, you are summer children. — Oh, my sweet summer child,” Old Nan said quietly, “what do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods
  3. Good helps others without concern for themselves. Smart helps others while also helping themselves. Evil harms others while helping themselves. Stupid harms others while also harming themselves. Balajis
  4. We live in a power law universe. Worth trying a lot of things and assuming the one or two big wins will make up for all the losses
  5. Re-reading something great is a better choice than reading new rubbish. Tren Griffin
  6. You want to be rich and anonymous, not poor and famous. Naval
  7. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless. Oscar Wilde.
  8. The best way to have a good relationship is to deserve a good relationship.
  9. Soak it all In, it’s a game you can’t win enjoy the ride
  10. Never buy a depreciating asset. If it drives, flies, or floats… lease it. – the rock.
  11. Loose lips sink ships.
  12. We are the universe experiencing itself. Alan watts
  13. We became self aware only to realize this story is not about us. Kuzgesagt
  14. Money is the gamification of life. Tim Ferriss
  15. The best way to predict the future is to invent it
  16. Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up. Chesterson
  17. Beware of people and their little fiefdoms
  18. “Everyday you have a choice to make. You can pick it up and actually play guitar, or you can theorize and talk about it, read and think about it. The way to get better is to put the damn thing in your hands and bang on it till you get a sound that comes out of it that sounds good. I’m not sure what to make of all this nonsense talk about tone and pedals and this that and the other thing. Its your practice time, you decide.”
  19. “I have this new theory where if you have to ask someone else if you should take something potentially harmful to your body, the answer is already no. That decision has to be your own, and it has to be a well educated decision, because people like bodybuilding for a few years, and they take steroids and they’ll be like ‘I don’t actually like bodybuilding.’ Then they’ll quit bodybuilding, and their body is still fucked up from the juice or whatever they took in the meantime. “So that decision, you shouldn’t ask anybody that. You should just know, and you should be fking dedicated to wanting to do it. So no, you shouldn’t if you’re asking me that.” Chris Bumstead, Mr. Olympia sharing his thoughts on steroid use.
  20. It’s nice to be able to put yourself in an environment where you can completely accept all the unconscious stuff that comes to you from the inner workings of your mind. Block yourself off to where you can control it all, take it down, that’s where true creativity comes form. — Bob Dylan
  21. “Its not too late unless you are dead.”
  22. My happiness comes from rewards that were very difficult to achieve. Joe Rogan
  23. Whats it all worth, if it’s painless? Wiz Khalifa
  24. The race is long, and in the end, it’s with yourself.
  25. The only thing holding you back is yourself
  26. You wont be successful if you aren’t interested in what you do all day. – Charlie Munger
  27. “Most geniuses—especially those who lead others—prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities.” Andy Benoid
  28. You will not find toughness in a comfortable environment. David Goggins.
  29. “Get off your ass and go sell something.” Mark Cuban
  30. “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
  31. Roll the dice. If youre going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. Bukowski
  32. “How much time should i spend practicing guitar? — answer: if you have to ask, don’t bother.”
  33. Some persons we see under no remarkable circumstances but whom, for some reason or another, we never forget. – Richard Henry Dana Jr.
  34. “Stevie, most important thing, the better you get, the harder you work. You can’t say “well i got it made I got enough”. Dont do that. – Albert King, to Stevie Ray Vaughan during a guitar session.
  35. Fortune favors the bold
  36. Some opportunities only come once. Seize them.
  37. I’ve already had one hell of a fun journey, so I’m ready to go when its time. Lex Fridman
  38. If you don’t have a plan, you become part of somebody else’s plan. Terence Mckenna
  39. 80% of the money, best romantic partners, and everything good in life will go to the 20% of people who deserve them most.
  40. Fame will not fix your problems. If anything, fame will magnify your insecurities and exaggerate your fears. – Tim Ferriss.
  41. I ask not for lighter burden, but broader shoulders.
  42. Rest at the end, not in the middle
  43. I don’t want to be a product of my environment, i want my environment to be a product of me – Jack Nicholson, the departed
  44. “Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it” – Mike Tyson
  45. Develop your communication skills because once you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are.
  46. We are all building castles in the sand soon to be erased by time.
  47. If you don’t make time for your wellness, your body will make time for illness.
  48. Founders are great at searching for a repeatable and scalable business model. -Steve Blank.
  49. Don’t overplay your hand.
  50. Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.
  51. “I don’t need another lover hanging around trying to make me change”.
  52. “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”. Bob Dylan
  53. I’m not an expert but I try to really know what the experts think and keep up to date as the experts change their mind. – Tim Urban, talking about AI.
  54. Entertainment and distraction are the enemy of creativity and learning.
  55. Good habits are hard to form and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with. -Mark Matteson
  56. You can’t get advice on what you should do with your life. As much as you want people to agree and to be around you supporting your dreams, its not going to be like that all the time. You gotta do it alone. – Will Smith
  57. The way of relationships will get you further.
  58. Life’s mostly just wasting time – Townes Van Zandt
  59. We don’t cancel shows. We do the show and if things go wrong, that’s just the way it is. – Jerry Seinfeld
  60. Discomfort is your friend – Joe Rogan
  61. It takes a long time to become young – Pablo Picasso
  62. First, last, and always
  63. We’ve come a long way but we’re a long way from being done – Buddy Guy
  64. I thank the lord for letting me stay around a little longer – Buddy Guy
  65. There are two ways to sell: Overcome objections, figure out what’s holding folks back, talk about the positives, or find people who need what you’re selling more than you need their money, talk about the negatives, and let them sell themselves. (#2 is better)
  66. Seest thou a man diligent in business? He will stand before kings.
  67. You can say a lot of things about me but you cant say that i dont take a risk and put it all out on the table.
  68. You might as well go for an endeavor and fail at something you think you might not be able to do. Take the risk of failing. What if you are able to do it? You would never know. Expose yourself to failure.
  69. Older people want to know how it does what it does, younger people just want to know what it can do. – Steve Jobs
  70. The really important thing in life is to really appreciate it because we only get to do this once and its not for a long time. – Jay Moriarty
  71. “No good movie is long enough and no bad movie is short enough”
  72. ‘You might as well go for an endeavor and fail at something you think you might not be able to do. Take the risk of failing. What if you are able to do it? You would never know. Expose yourself to failure.’ – Scott Kelly astronaut
  73. Ideas are what could happen, engineering is about making things happen.
  74. “Its not that i’m so smart its just that i’ve stuck with problems longer” -albert einstein
  75. “Persistence is 90% of it.” – pro blogger
  76. Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned
  77. Business is hard at the beginning, but rich at the end. Long struggle, long grind, long fight. Start early so you have time to reap the reward.
  78. Enjoy being young while you still are. It doesn’t last forever. – My friend Alex Verner
  79. On critics: they’re entitled not to like us, and we’re entitled not to have anything to do with them if we don’t want to. – John Lennon
  80. Agree with thine adversary quickly. – Jesus
  81. The lord giveth, the lord taketh. – Bible
  82. The ability to do a lot with a little – important in learning guitar as well as in life
  83. Death twitches my ear – “live”, he says, “i am coming”.
  84. Its not enough to be right, you have to be effective
  85. A ship is always safe in port, but that’s not what ships are for.
  86. You can only lose if you quit.
  87. A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
  88. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” “The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school.” – John F. Kennedy, 1962
  89. Don’t wait for tomorrow, don’t wish one (single) day away. – buddy guy
  90. I must create a system or be defined by another mans. – william blake
  91. The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar instead of how little he can give for a dollar is bound to succeed. – henry ford
  92. My favorite conspiracy theory is that everything is gonna be ok.
  93. Work sucks, i know. – blink 182
  94. In a world where you can be anything, be kind.
  95. Everything will kill you so choose something fun.
  96. If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, i don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry. – Satoshi Nakamoto
  97. “If you didn’t bring it with you, you ain’t gonna find it here.”
  98. Try to attack my goals like any real man should – with a persistence (absent of attachment), full well knowing they may or may not come to fruition, yet absent of any attachment. And if there’s a way to achieve it in this universe, determined (hell bent) to find it.
  99. It ain’t easy, it ain’t free, but it is a grand adventure! (Quora commenter on learning the guitar)
  100. Try my best to accept the way it is because this may be the best it ever gets. I don’t wanna be 35 and look back and go that was it. I will not appreciate this as much as I will looking back on it. – John Mayer
  101. The main reason people fail to accomplish as much as they could – in poker and in life – is that they don’t play their best game.
  102. “Prince, what you are, you are through chance and birth; what I am, I am through my own labor. There are many princes and there will continue to be thousands more, but there is only one Beethoven.”
  103. Write daily. I can write daily. And believe it or not its more possible than I initially thought
  104. Do or do not, there is no try – yoda
  105. You just have to grind. That is literally all you have to do.
  106. “A little excess fear is exactly what evolutionary principles would predict…’the cost of us getting killed even once is higher than the cost of responding to a hundred false alarms.'” ~Steve Stewart-Williams, The Ape That Understood the Universe
  107. “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.” — Bruce Lee
  108. “Every next level of your life will demand a different you.” — Leonardo DiCaprio
  109. (in life)You can do anything you want but you cant do everything you want. Choose wisely
  110. Show me your friends and I can show you the future
  111. Most things aren’t new, they’re just new to you.
  112. All things are difficult before they are easy
  113. If you have everything under control you aren’t moving fast enough.
  114. “When you put your mind to something you will find a quicker way to get there than anybody – nobody will be able to beat you”.
  115. The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing – Walt Disney
  116. When work is no longer productive, read. When reading is no longer productive, sleep
  117. All of human endeavor is just killing time – jerry seinfeld
  118. The hard part is usually finding the data – Larry Ellison
  119. Inspiration is for amateurs. The pros just show up and get to work. – Chuck Close
  120. Get it while you can
  121. “It is only by means of the sciences of life that the quality of life can be radically changed”. – Aldous Huxley
  122. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
  123. “Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” —Immanuel Kant
  124. Waste money don’t waste time.
  125. If you really want to succeed, double your rate of failure.
  126. “The curse of mortality. You spend the first portion of your life learning, growing stronger, more capable. And then, through no fault of your own, your body begins to fail. You regress. Strong limbs become feeble, keen senses grow dull, hardy constitutions deteriorate. Beauty withers. Organs quit. You remember yourself in your prime, and wonder where that person went. As your wisdom and experience are peaking, your traitorous body becomes a prison.” ― Brandon Mull, Fablehaven
  127. “Will having a newborn distract from the time we have together?” she asked. “Don’t you think saying goodbye to your child will make your death more painful?” “Wouldn’t it be great if it did?” I said. Lucy and I both felt that life wasn’t about avoiding suffering.” ― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air
  128. “to live life is to have desires”
  129. Take care of the man’s job first. – Coach T
  130. It’s no longer a career ladder, it’s a jungle gym.
  131. Every big win i’ve ever had has come from reaching out and connecting with people. – Jordan Harbinger
  132. I couldn’t dream it any better – Zion Williamson
  133. Choose your team wisely. Eagles don’t fly with pigeons.
  134. Successful investing is having everyone agree with you in the future.
  135. “Lasting novels don’t come from literature departments. Successful businesses don’t come from business schools. Scientific revolutions don’t come from research universities. Get your education, then get moving. Find the loners tinkering at the edge.”
  136. “Nobody knows the way. Try to figure it out. Forget school and experts. Figure it out yourself.”
  137. “It is very dangerous to have a plan B because you are cutting yourself off from the chance of really succeeding. Most people have a plan B because they are afraid of failing. But failing is OK. you have to fail in order to climb that ladder. But we all fail. Winners will fail and get up. Losers will stay up (and never fail)
  138. “Work your ass off and tell the world about it”
  139. “Do good things and tell people about them.”
  140. “You stupid bitch, you know what’s wrong with your life!”
  141. “The best part about creating technology is seeing what the world does with it” – Google Earth
  142. You are going to die. This will all be over one day. Leave it all on the table, no stone un-turned.
  143. A bad plan is better than no plan at all.
  144. If you act like you know what you’re doing everybody thinks that you do. – Joe Walsh
  145. “I just realized that she knew everything I knew, more actually, but that it was coming out of a woman’s head” – John Lennon, on his wife Yoko
  146. Tell people the secrets how not to use your business, then more people will use your business. Gary V
  147. When you love what you have you have everything you need.
  148. “The price of progress in civilization is paid in forfeiting happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.”
  149. Success is found in the pursuit.
  150. At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for.” – Marcus Aurealious
  151. “do you want to be a loser, or do you NOT want to be a loser?”
  152. Do the simple things first
  153. Discipline = Freedom. – Jocko Willink
  154. Bitches gon ride with who they thinks a winner. – Wiz Khalifa
  155. “AI began with an ancient wish to forge the gods.” – Pamela Mccormick
  156. It only takes one set of footprints for the world to follow.
  157. “Like every startup, this company started with one person in a 10 foot by 10 foot room, with one machine.”
  158. You want to be a writer? Well, write!
  159. “We’re not pretending to be God, we are God; God is pretending to be us.”
  160. Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
  161. “You gotta grind. that’s where a lot of comics fuck up. they do it like once a week and they take a few weeks off, and then they come back and do it again. and they’re like how do you do it all the time? I’m like, cause I know how to grind, I’m a grinder” – Joe Rogan
  162. Just grind, thats literally all you gotta do.
  163. Only a dead fish goes with the flow
  164. “My favorite part of my work is following my curiosity around the bend, over the next ridge, into the souk, hunting facts and asking questions, going where the story seems like it might be rich.” – William Finnegan
  165. “I’ve never made a record I liked” – Buddy Guy
  166. “The earth snapped and popped and rippled. It was, Goldfinger thought, like driving through rocky terrain in a vehicle with no shocks, if both the vehicle and the (ground) terrain were also on a raft in high seas.” – kathryn schulz, on the earthquake to hit the PNW.
  167. Ask not, “how to be successful”, but “how do you be useful?”
  168. If you’re not working on yourself, you’re not working.
  169. The exploration of space appears as the most hopeful feature of a dark landscape – Freeman
  170. Be smarter than the problem
  171. When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep. — Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
  172. Your body is not a temple. It’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride – Anthony Bourdain
  173. What a long strange trip its been
  174. By justifying your problems, you recommit to them – Russel Brand.
  175. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. – Mae Jemison
  176. Independence is happiness. – susan b. anthony
  177. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them – jim kwik
  178. Going to the mountains is going home – john muir
  179. There’s never any guarantee. – a doctor I shadowed.
  180. hard choices -> easy life. easy choices -> hard life.
  181. We suffer more in imagination than in reality.
  182. The advantage is that you can start something without expectation. – Gary Vee
  183. The two greatest addictions in the world are heroin and a weekly salary.
  184. “scared money never wins”
  185. Slow money’s bad as gettin no money – wiz khalifa
  186. “praise by name, criticize by category”
  187. If you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans – John Chancellor
  188. “Procrastinate on resting. Put off your nap until tomorrow” – Jocko Willink
  189. “When you become blindly about the audience, you win.”-Gary V
  190. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you will find success.” — Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
  191. You must change your life
  192. These are the days
  193. “I never found what i loved. But i did find what paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. And I love that. And i found what allowed me to not to have work anymore. And I also love that. – professor Stephen Heath
  194. September 6, 2018. Good luck remembering today 25 years from now. Chances are you wont be able to no matter how hard you try. In the grand scheme of things, today is just another day. “Yet, today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.” What you do today will certainly have an impact on your days 25 years from now. 25 years ago I was taking this class and I can very much guarantee the time I spent in those days has lead me to where I am today. My equity is measured in millions. My time is spent doing what I want to, not what I have to. If you’re reading this email, you’re on the short list of people I answer too. Of all the days in my life, some of the most defining days came during this class 25 years ago. The unwielding power you have today to shape the person you will become 25 years from wont be any more significant than it is today. The ability to separate yourself from the pack is greater now than it will be 25 years from now. Those that understand the importance of today and making today count, enjoy today and enjoy tomorrow. – Yeah sure, Im stealing from Hemmingway a bit, but he has a point. Not sure he was writing about accounting, but I guess it applies nonetheless. A long way of saying, show up to class and do your work. Also a long way of saying, don’t cement yourself in mediocrity.my Financial Accounting Teacher.
  195. Go where you go and do what you do – Woody Allen
  196. “Deeds and not words are what count most”
  197. “Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.” – Mary Kay Ash
  198. “It is not length of life but depth of life” – Emerson
  199. It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. – Paulo Coelho in the alchemist
  200. Once you get the message, hang up the phone. – Terence McKenna
  201. “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky
  202. It’s fun being a human – Gary V
  203. Remember that every old person – every adult and boss and coworker you see around you – was at one time a baby. A cute little baby pooping their pants and spitting up. Feel the compassion for everyone.
  204. “People overestimate what they can get done in a day, and underestimate what they can get done in a year.”
  205. “Skepticism was warranted. Most ideas don’t survive. Most ideas don’t transform themselves.” -Larry Ellison.
  206. “I didn’t fail. I just learned 1000 ways to NOT make a light bulb” – Thomas Edison.
  207. The right way of being is attempting to continually transcend the flawed thing that you are. The meaning of life is to be found in that pursuit. – Jordan Peterson
  208. There are 7 days in a week and “some day” is not one of them.
  209. If you want to be a good writer, you can’t have a mediocre life.
  210. Incentives motivate behavior.
  211. Do your future self a favor: Learn.
  212. You can’t produce a baby in 1 month by getting 9 women pregnant.
  213. A winner is just a loser that tried one more time.
  214. We only get to do this thing once and its not for a long time – so enjoy it. – Jay Moriarty
  215. Life is short. It’s also guaranteed to end. So take a breath and relax.
  216. “Have 3 hobbies: 1 that keeps you in shape, one that keeps you creative, and one that makes you money”
  217. I have enough – Kurt Vonnegut
  218. “Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die”
  219. “Security is mostly superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Hellen Keller
  220. “You don’t move to the Bay Area because you want to pay 15000 more per rent each year over the next 5 years. You move to the Bay Area for the opportunity to make MILLIONS which dwarfs the puny amount of rent you may have paid”
  221. “Get through the bull shit so that you can afford to to do the good/fun shit.”
  222. These days will become the good ol days
  223. All that you need is in your soul – Lynyrd Skynyrd
  224. What the eyes don’t see the heart won’t reveal.
  225. “You guys have all that education and book learning, but you have no common sense.”
  226. “Someone’s gotta be the luckiest man in the world, I️t might as well be me.”-Mark Cuban
  227. “If you want total security, go to prison. There you are fed, clothed and given medical care. The only thing lacking…is freedom.” – Dwight Eisenhower
  228. “Remember: you will die one day. Live it up.”
  229. “Success is not easy. Success is a mother fucker!”
  230. “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
  231. “Now as we grow older, we remember those happy days we spent together in a happy country. A sign of genuine friendship is that I️t does not change, come what may. Once you get to know each other, you retain your friendship and help each other for the rest of your life.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama
  232. “All men have fears, but the brave men put down their fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory.” – King’s Guard from Ancient Greece.
  233. “p.s. I would go back to the fraternity and college in a heartbeat. Live it up.” – An alumni in college to me, as a Freshman
  234. “The best revenge is living well”
  235. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. —Henry Ford
  236. “It starts by wanting to create a classic” – Robert Greene
  237. Lots of people want to be the noun without doing the verb. – Austin Kleon
  238. “What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
  239. You want a seat at the table? Pull up a chair.
  240. The wealthiest person I know well, who is possibly a billionaire, gave me some advice about a decade ago, and I’ll share it with you now. He said, “Asim beta [which means son in Urdu], it doesn’t matter what you do, you just have to do it very well.” A decade on, and many startups later, I couldn’t agree with him more. – Asim Qureshi on Quora.
  241. “A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.” — James Allen
  242. “And I say unto you, Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” — Luke 11:9
  243. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” Proverbs 23:7
  244. “Its easier to ride the wave than to create the wave.”
  245. “The only way to avoid pissing people off is to do nothing important.” — Oliver Emberton
  246. ”Somebody once told me the definition of hell: “On your last day on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.” — Anonymous
  247. “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” ― Robert Greene, Mastery
  248. “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” ― Winston S. Churchill
  249. “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” — James Allen
  250. “innovators must consistently act different to think different” – HBR
  251. Shared knowledge is a rising tide lifting all ships
  252. Science is magic that works
  253. “so long as you make all those things objects of desire, you are defining yourself as lacking them”
  254. “you can make any activity into a meditation, simply by doing it just to do it”
  255. “its always good to be able to be exactly who you are in business and in life, as long as you realize that business is about making money.”
  256. “In other parts of the world, kids–even in urban areas–play barefoot soccer from the time they can walk. In America, there are travel teams and team mothers and tournaments. It’s an organization, and until we see it as a street game, we’re [USA Soccer] never going to to get where we need to be.” Tim Howard, USA and Everton Goalie, Golden Glove – 2009 Confederation Cup Tournament ESPN Magazine, June 2009
  257. Whenever you put three or more people together, politics intervene.
  258. Make your life spectacular. I know I did. – Robin Williams
  259. “You have to see the darkness to truly experience the light” – Jocko Willink
  260. There are two necessary conditions to become an entrepreneur: absolute confidence and total ignorance. – Dan Sullivan
  261. You have all the ingredients; stop trying to find a recipe, create one.
  262. Only the curious have something to find. – Nickel Creek
  263. You can see the stars and still not see the light.
  264. “Before the development of tourism, travel was conceived to be like study, and its fruits were considered to be the adornment of the mind and the formation of the judgement” – Paul Fussel
  265. You are not like most people, you have the gift of creation. You Are one of the creators. You create the jobs you create the ideas that change the world. If you’re not pursuing your dream, somebody else doesn’t get to pursue theirs as a part of yours.
  266. Say more, with fewer words.
  267. Nobody likes you when you’re 23 so you might as well get a job
  268. Rather than generating profit, focus on generating company – surrounding yourself with good company, people who are also driven by a goal.
  269. We just really crave those good times. And it seems like every time the bad times come we just say, “at least some time in the future we’ll have another good roll”, instead of fixing the problem, which is that the whole economy is based on something volatile, and if you try to maintain control no matter what, you’re gonna lose it.
  270. If we can establish human colonies on mars, and something with earth does go wrong, then at least the light of consciousness is not distinguished – Elon Musk
  271. The minute you’re a little less attached than everybody else, you have incredible power over everybody, because you don’t want anything that everybody else wants so much. The minute you don’t want so much, suddenly you’re free, in a way that you can’t believe because you’re so used to being trapped in this network of needs and desires.
  272. Be the most engaged and least attached. Be 100% committed, 0% needy.
  273. Deeds and not words are what count most – Napoleon Hill
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Why Your Fear of Sharks is Actually Irrational

Is it rational or irrational to be afraid of sharks? Human fight or flight instinct keeps us cautious when treading in the wilderness, weather on land or by sea. Humans are at the top of the food chain not because of our formidable physique. We have become a naturally dominant predator because of our brains. We are capable of outsmarting and ultimately dominating other apex predators due to our intelligence.

Image result for grizzly bear
via discovery.com

An apex predator is a species the species at the top of the food chain, or an animal that has no natural predators in any given environment.

Brains over brawn, as they say. The animal kingdom’s list of apex predators includes lions, grizzly bears, saltwater crocodiles, and even humans. The orca whale, a type of dolphin, is the apex predator of the ocean. Though great white sharks were formerly considered to be the ocean’s apex predator, it is now known that they are not; it has been confirmed that orca whales can hunt and kill great white sharks.

Why are people more afraid of sharks than of orcas?

Now, its funny enough that our fear of sharks tends to extend up to the great white shark but not beyond it – we don’t hear people discuss a fear of orca whales, although these animals are capable of tearing apart anything in its path. For some reason, sharks tend to haunt the minds of ocean-goers while orca attacks are not nearly as fear inducing.

west coast sharks
The above shows every shark attack ever recorded along the West Coast. Image from the international shark attack file.

The reason why may be a result of societal factors rather than of rational fears. People’s fear of sharks may largely be a result of popular culture. Movies such as Jaws portray sharks as aggressive animals that are out to get humans. Shark Week, popularized by the Discovery Channel, has no doubt increased human awareness of shark attacks, but has likely done little to alleviate our widespread fear.

Yes, sharks have killed people – its no secret. But how likely is it, really, that you actually get attacked by a shark while going for a nice swim or surf in the ocean? In this article, we’re going to investigate the data to show you just how likely it is, and help you decide whether or not the common fear is rational or not.

Shark Attack Data

According to the Worldwide Shark Attack Summary, there were only 66 confirmed, unprovoked shark attacks on humans in 2018 across the globe, only 4 of which were fatal. In the United States, there was only 1 fatal shark attack.

east coast sharks
The above shows every shark attack ever recorded along the East Coast of North America, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Image from the international shark attack file.

Welcome to Florida, the shark-attack capital of the United States!

In the U.S., more shark attacks happen in Florida than anywhere else, with 16 occurring there in 2018. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Hawaii are the next most-common locations for shark attacks, but it is less than 1/4 as likely.

Below is the tabulated global data on shark attack incidents in 2018, categorized by type. You will notice that many incidents represent situations where the shark was either provoked, or was the result of other non-natural scenarios. Aside from the 66 confirmed, unprovoked cases, the rest can be largely ignored – either lacking evidence or the result of human stupidity by provocation.

sharkattacktable

However, the number of confirmed attacks for 2018 (66 cases) is significantly lower than the former 5-year period, between 2013-2017, which averaged 84 incidents per year.

Shark attacks – and specifically fatalities from those attacks – are so rare that one could argue they are not even worth worrying about.

Shark attacks aside, there is another danger – a danger that most Americans do in fact experience every single day. Yet, nobody talks about nor thinks twice before engaging in this deadly activity.

Here is what you should actually be afraid of:

I hate to set a morbid tone to this article, but my purpose in writing this is to re-focus your fear of sharks, and transfer your fear toward cars. As a high school kid, my community lost multiple friends during my short 4 year span between 9th and 12th grade. If you are reading this, there is a high chance that you know someone who has been the victim of a fatal automobile crash. Although being in an automobile is one of the most dangerous things humans do on a daily basis, very few people talk about it. Why?

According to the National Safety Council, over 40,000 people were killed in vehicle-related incidents in 2018. In truth, these numbers remain consistent for each of the past 3 years – more than 120,000 total.

In 2018 in the United States, there were 32 total shark attacks, and roughly 40,000 people that died in car crashes. Statistically, dying in an automobile is 1,250 times more likely than any fatal/non-fatal shark attack. Dying in an automobile is 40,000 times more likely than a fatal shark attack.

If we want to worry about something, let’s at least worry about something that is statistically likely and that we can control. Remind your loved ones to drive safe. As a species, let’s get self driving car technology improved to the point of wide-spread adoption. Please, let’s find a way to reduce the number of automobile fatalities. And if you still worry about sharks next time you go into the ocean, just remember: car rides and orca whales are two phenomena that have been proven to be much more scary.

image.jpg
The orca is the apex predator of the ocean. from Wikipedia

Meet the Most Dangerous Bird Alive: the Cassowary

As a native species in some of the most formidable territories on Earth (New Guinea and Australia), the cassowary bird stands 5-6 feet tall, weighs up to 160 pounds, can swim, jump 7 feet high, and run 30 miles per hour.

Larger than a Canadian goose but smaller than an ostrich, the cassowary has sturdy, splayed out feet with 10-centimeter long talons that are capable of disemboweling a human. They are even known to kick humans with their legs. On top of the head protruding from the skull, cassowaries possess a dense, helmet-like horn (called a casque) which they use aggressively during fights (see video). The Cassowary is considered class 2 wildlife, alongside howler monkeys, bobcats, honey badgers, clouded leopards, and alligators. Cassowary2

“The inner or second of the three toes is fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or eviscerate an abdomen with ease. There are many records of natives being killed by this bird.” – Living Birds of the World by Ernest Thomas Gilliard

Recently, a Florida man was killed by one of these rare, flightless birds. According to sources, the man raised the animal and was certified to work with and breed them on his farm. He was clawed to death.

With a decreasing overall population, the cassowary is considered to have a vulnerable conservation status.

Most often, cassowary attacks on humans occur when plucking at food or being fed. A quick internet search down the rabbit holes of reddit or YouTube yields a few video clips of these menacing creatures in action.

 

Searching for the Perfect Burrito: El Toro Bravo

Its lunch time a picture of the sign in front of el toro bravoon a Sunday in a place where the weather doesn’t stray too far from perfect year round. Viewed from the sidewalk of a suburban side street, a sign with green and red letters reads El Toro Bravo Mexican Food. The building is unremarkable. Ten people line up to order. Ordering to-go is commonplace, so there are plenty of open tables.

A red awning covers the front of the dining area. On a silver steel appliance, a sticker reads ‘Don’t Trash Beaches’. A kid with dreadlocks and flip flops juggles his plate full of tacos with a skateboard in one hand. Five out of six large flat screens display a static menu, while a Spanish-commentated Juventus vs. img_4364Milano futbol match plays on the sixth. For such an efficiently organized assortment of food, the menu itself is misleadingly complex. They do the familiar dishes – tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, tamales, empanadas. Rather than squinting at the menu screens, ingredients may be readily inspected by peeking through the sneeze guard. This is Mexican food for the type A personality – made to order with artisan like craftsmanship.

img_4366Carrying a huge tray from the back, a chef unloads tongfulls of steaming slow cooked meat into the food display. Anchored by familiar crowd pleasers like al pastor, pollo and carne asada, the restaurant’s real chef d’oeuvre is carnitas (which I’ve devoured on previous occasions). The nonchalant casualness and proximity my friend’s house assumes repeat visits, so I’m empowered to experience the asada.

After placing a few pieces on the counter and slamming a butcher knife 5-10 times, a small mountain of fluffy chopped meat remains. For those with a large appetite, portion size is a distinct selling point. el toro bravo burrito rolling

After spreading refried beans on the open faced tortilla and adding a few scoops of rice, the chef  piles on the slow roasted asada. Desiring a traditional combination, I dodge the guac and sour cream, selecting pico de gallo, parmesan, cilantro, onions, lettuce, and salsa picante. The tortilla maintains its elasticity as the chef rolls the splayed out contents. His technique embodies a practiced muscle memory that produces a well wrapped Nalgene bottle sized finished product – toasted and warmly nestled in a blanket of foil. Hungry and overly ambitious, we order nachos as well. nachos from el toro bravo

We take a seat at a high top table and I smile at the silver bullion atop the crumpled paper plate. I peel away the foil revealing a crisply toasted tortilla – flaky golden dough is malleable enough that it somehow maintains its strength as I dig in.

It isn’t until the second and third bites that my expectations are exceeded, el toro bravo burritoas either edge of a burrito tends to contain extra tortilla. The bulging burrito is wide enough to resemble a bowl. I sample a fork full of ingredients from the squishy cylinder. The flavor itself blends a charred smoke with saucy marinade. To avoid inhaling my food at a stomach condemning pace, I set it on the paper plate, standing upright, and sip a plastic cup of water.

Salsa splattering onto shirt fronts, we finish up as a young couple sheepishly walks in. She’s donning flannels el toro bravo burritoand vans, he’s in a flat brimmed five-panel hat and beige new balances. The woman at the register greets him like a close relative – maybe a nephew – and hands him a Pacifico beer. They walk to the back of the line and a chef walks around to greet them with a smile and Spanish exchanges. Clearly regulars, the couple knows what to expect at El Toro Bravo – nothing short of the finest burrito known to man.

There’s a million and one places to find great mexican food in this world. Somehow, El Toro Bravo has distinguished itself beyond the common taco shack; I’m still trying to pinpoint what exactly seduces me to return time and again.

Costa Mesa, California

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accounting for Pollution: Garbage lasts Forever

You won’t hear an accountant mention pollution & accounting in the same sentence, but we are going to do so here, since we aren’t accountants. Garbage is what’s known as an economic bad, as opposed to most physical items, which are considered economic goods. Since garbage costs time and energy to remove, the possession of more garbage decreases the value of the one who possesses it. The phrase “throw it away” is misleading, comparable to fake news. Forget about diamonds – garbage quite literally is forever. We have nowhere to put it, so we resort to housing garbage in designated areas of our home planet Earth. As we continue generating this economic bad, garbage accumulation must result in a decrease in the value of planet Earth.

If you take a class in environmental science or search online, you’ll learn of the two rough categories of pollution:

Point and non-point source pollution —

Point-Sources

Point-source originates from a definite, identifiable source. Think of it as original pollution. Examples of point-sources:

– factories
– sewage treatment plants
– electric power generation
– oil & gas extraction
– oil & gas refineries
– coal mining
– coal fired power generation
– air pollution
– mobile sources & transportation (planes, trains, automobiles)

This San Antonio de los buenos pipe dumps over 20 million gallons of sewage into the Pacific Ocean every single day. Although the origin has been identified, there is nothing that has been done. A solution may cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Humans, mammals, and creatures of every taxonomic rank experience pain. Illness affect us all, and each illness has the potential to reach a point of no return, at which point it becomes terminal for the organism. As of this moment, humans are inflicting a seemingly small amount of damage – analogous to an illness – on our earth via pollution. In an anthropomorphic sense, we are giving Earth a weakened immune system. It has the sniffles. As of now its not too late to get healthy. We can reduce the ill effects of pollution on our environment and atmosphere. And in doing so discover practices that promote a healthier Earth. Although not easy, we have to believe that it is possible. This is of utmost importance because if we aren’t careful, the small damages we are doing to earth may turn into something more serious. Its far easier to prevent lung cancer by refraining from smoking than it is to cure lung cancer after you get it. Likewise, it requires significantly more energy to clean up pollution than to prevent it. Prevention is better than clean up.

Non-point sources:

Non-point does not originate from a definite, identifiable source. It is a result of the diffusion of point-source pollution.

Run Off: Let’s look at an example. Think about the contribution of a cars in a city to non-point source pollution that accumulates on roads (let’s simplify by excluding air pollution from the equation).  in your city distribute substances (oil, gasoline, exaust, sludge, rubber, litter, debris, etc.) that accumulate on road surfaces. Individually, each car is a point-source. The aggregation of these chemicals being deposited by all 494,000 cars registered in San Francisco contributes to the category known as non-point source pollution.

Another example is runoff. The harmful chemicals that collect on any surface of earth, whether a road, parking lot, farm, originate at point-sources including cars, equipment, debris, agricultural materials, etc.

“When rain or melted snow moves over and through the ground, the water absorbs and assimilates any pollutants it comes into contact with.” (USEPA, 2004b)

Let us consider agricultural non-point sources, which are a result of the diffuse runoff that comes from the use of fertilizers, pesticides, or animal waste while growing crops and livestock.

Simple logic: to reduce the non-point source pollution that as a result of agriculture sources, we must stop it at the point of origin.

In this case, identifying each point source is too cumbersome and thus impractical… but we can paint a picture of what the point source associated with each non-point source generally looks like.

The pollution in the runoff example is the result of multiple locations over a period of days or weeks before rainfall, so you can’t pinpoint the exact source. Runoff is difficult to measure, identify, and control because it is the result of combined pollution sources that are received by the environment when water absorbs those chemicals which occurs over the entire surface of earth.

– land runoff
– precititation (acid rain)
– atmospheric deposition
– drainage
– leakage
– seepage (from underground storage tanks)
– hydrological modification (via rainfall and snowmelt)
– storm water runoff
– atmospheric deposition of contaminants, and
– storm water runoff from
– golf courses
– agricultural establishments
– forestry or construction sites

Acid Rain: Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) enter the atmostphere when fossil fuels are burned at factories or by internal combustion engines. These chemicals can cause acid rain. Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) reacting in the atmosphere with water; it then returns to earth as polluted rain, fog, or snow. Acid rain is considered non-point source. The originating source of acid rain are the multitude of point-sources sending smog into the atmosphere that combines with clouds.

After examining how we define point and non-point sources, logic will allow us to realize that by reducing all the point-sources, we will eliminate non-point sources of pollution from appearing. This of course does not include pollution that has already entered the atmosphere. What’s there is there unless we can do something to remove it. Reducing point sources of pollution will thus stop non-point sources of pollution from accumulating, but we will still have cleanup to do. However, for now, to make the largest impact, humans should focus efforts toward reducing point-sources.

Seems simple enough. But what happens when we try to track pollution to discover where it is coming from?

Can we track pollution?

It turns out that tracking pollution to a single source is difficult.

How can we determine the source of microplastics pollution, the material washing up on the far-stretching beaches of Zlatni Rat, Croatia? By first examining the materials themselves, maybe we discover that a large percentage of it is made up of specific types of materials – for instance, polystyrene (aka styrofoam).

Going with this example, after disposal, a piece of styrofoam will break up into 999,999 pieces pretty quickly. These tiny polystyrene particles may have come from a piece of packaging, part of a cooler, a styrofoam cup, you name it. We can consider existing ocean currents  in the Mediterranean and near Croatia to consider what may have sent it there. Because the Mediterranean is a semi-closed body of water, attaching to the Atlantic only through the strait of Gibraltar on the west and to the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on the southeastern side, we can hypothesize that microplastic particles existing there also originated there. The Mediterranean is more or less a closed system.

It is much more likely that the point-source origin is located somewhere along the coast of the Mediterranean sea. By narrowing it down, we can then try to estimate travel time to determine how long it may have taken to get from one place to another. We can think about ocean currents that may have sent it there. We can try multiple things to try to get a sense for where exactly all of the rubbish is coming from.

But ultimately, it is absolutely impossible to know where exactly plastics on the beaches of Croatia originated.

Scientists have categorized this as “non-point source” pollution because its origin is unknown. In a disorganized universe that follows the second law of thermodynamics, microplastics get lost in the clutter of the environment and atmosphere. Nobody can identify the source.

But these microplastics came from somewhere. So by convention, these pieces of microscopic polystyrene are considered non-point and separate from point-sources of pollution.

Non-point source pollution results from the disorganization and diffusion of all the point-sources of pollution combined through the environment. Non-point source pollution is “redundant source pollution”. Current technology is too incompetent to identify the point-source tied to every non-point source.

Accounting for pollution

In 1769, when James Watt patented the first steam engine. Voila, air pollution was amplified. With the growth of transportation technology as well as the human population since that date, pollution has progressively gotten worse as we’ve continued polluting the earth for at least 250 years.

Imagine for a second that we want to calculate how much pollution has ever occurred in the history of the world between now and forever-ago. To measure and account for quantity of those harmful substances in our environment, it would be helpful to differentiate between point and non-point because to avoid redundancy. Although an impossible feat in practice, to do so in theory, we would simply need to account for pollution arising from every single point-source in human history. By summing up pollution from each and every the point source ever, we would get an exact amount of total historical pollution (THP). We don’t need to factor in non-point source, because it would be counted twice.

(Point Source) + (Non Point source) > THP

THP is equal to the sum of all point sources of pollution from time = year 1700, to time = year 2018.

THP = ∑ (all point-sources of pollution) = Total Point-Source Pollution

Conclusion

Two broad types of pollution have been discussed briefly. When we consider which efforts will most greatly impact the future of humanity and help us create a clean, healthy environment, it can be hard to say which efforts are most effective.

The intention is not to say one category of pollution is worse or more benign than the other. The purpose is to identify the difference between pollution that has already entered the ecosystem, and pollution that is currently entering the ecosystem.

Before taking efforts to eliminate it, let’s realize there are different strategic purposes to reduction of each.

  1. The value in eliminating non-point source pollution: stop pollution from diffusing and spreading to new areas, and remove old, existing pollution from our environment. Pollution that is already there.
  2. Value in eliminating point-source pollution: prevent future pollution from entering out atmosphere and environment in the first place! Pollution that is entering the environment right now and into the future.

It is far easier to prevent a problem than it is to fix a problem.

In order to minimize human contribution to the pollution problem, humans must stop putting it into the ecosystem in the first place.

When calculating amounts of pollution, non-point source pollution has already been accounted for via the summation of all point sources. Point source pollution that has diffused throughout the environment can no longer be traced, so we duplicate it if we add them together. In theory, non-point source pollution is redundant and already accounted for, so we can essentially ignore it when accounting for how much pollution we create.

With enough thought and research, a point source can be broken down into its component point-sources. If you think you have a non-point source, ask yourself: What do I need to do to identify the original source?

Who has the power? The decision makers in the agriculture industry control what pesticides and fertilizers are used, as well as what happens to animal waste. In addition, every automobile manufacturer . on the business side of a a farm or agricultural facility. But as comsumers, we have the power to choose where our dollars go. Each dollar spent is like casting a vote for which business practices we will incentivize. If we purchase products that contribute to jit, we are playing our small but incremental role in the continuation of

For the future of our species, we must be focus on identifying point-sources in order to reduce the amount of pollution at its origin, rather than after-the-fact removal. If you are interested in discussing this further, please contact us.