Neal Stephenson Quotes
There was a common saying in the biz/tech world that 'A's hire A's, and B's hire C's,' the point being that as long as you continued to recruit only the very best people, they would attract others, but as soon as you let your standards slip, the second-raters would begin to sign up third-raters to act as their minions and advance their agendas.
Quotes to Explore
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We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.
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The thing about Y Combinator that's cool is that most companies won't happen if we don't fund them.
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I've always been a very confident person, and I know how important it is to take advantage when life gives you opportunity.
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What really makes it fun for an actor is when the script is good.
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I am a night owl. I always have been... and I'd like to think I always will be, although surely having children will put a stop to my nightly affairs with myself.
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I plan to go to university - but for sure, acting is what I want to do. It's a hard business, but I believe in my heart that I'll be doing it for a very long time.
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I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
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There's a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?
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It's very important to me to love what I do. It was important to me to find a career that I truly enjoy. You can find something that sort of excites you, that's half the battle of life.
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It's very possible that advertising business models will simply never do as well on mobile devices as those oriented around transactions.
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The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free.
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If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.
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Sex education is legitimate in that girls cannot be taught soon enough how children don't come into the world.
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If you are ambitious to talk well, you must be as much as possible in the society of well-bred, cultured people. If you seclude yourself, though you are a college graduate, you will be a poor converser.
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When I was 13, I thought I was pretty hot stuff because I knew BASIC programming, self-taught on the family's Commodore 64. One of my crowning accomplishments was writing a silly little program that showed a crudely-drawn Space Shuttle lifting off in a cloud of pixelated smoke.
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The two most important things to do for self-defense are not to take a martial arts class or get a gun, but to think like the opposition and know where you're most at risk.
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I was willing to accept what I couldn't change.
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Every song I write is autobiographical and is about people, and that's one of the things that gets complicated. You have to decide where's your place as a songwriter.
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I'll tell you this: You have to remember to chase and catch your dreams, because if you don't, your imagination will live in empty spaces, and that's nowhere land.
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I didn't have a very religious family.
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People regulate their level and distribution of effort in accordance with the effects they expect their actions to have. As a result, their behavior is better predicted from their beliefs than from the actual consequences of their actions.
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Sometimes the funniest people don't know that they're funny - like the administrators in my high school.
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Some folks call tennis a rich people's sport or a white person's game. I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do. Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis. You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.
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There was a common saying in the biz/tech world that 'A's hire A's, and B's hire C's,' the point being that as long as you continued to recruit only the very best people, they would attract others, but as soon as you let your standards slip, the second-raters would begin to sign up third-raters to act as their minions and advance their agendas.
