Reading
Reading represents quotes and book references from personal reading across technology, philosophy, creativity, and culture.
On Learning
In the beginner mind there are many possibilities; in the expert mind there are few. — Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. — Shunryu Suzuki
Even in wrong practice, when you realize it and continue, there is right practice. Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice. — Shunryu Suzuki
The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. — Shunryu Suzuki
When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things. — Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
On Truth and Reality
Truth, uncompromisingly told, will always have its ragged edges. — David Shields, Reality Hunger
All the best stories are true. — David Shields
Human memory, driven by emotional self-interest, goes to extraordinary lengths to provide evidence to back up whatever understanding of the world we have our hearts set on—however removed that may be from reality. — David Shields
The stories you tell come true. If you believe everyone is untrustworthy, youll build that into your systems so that even the best people have to act like the worst people to get anything done. — Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
Meaning, ultimately, is a matter of adjacent data. — David Shields
On Technology and Power
Security is about how you configure power, who has access to what. That is political. — Joseph Menn, Cult of the Dead Cow
Small groups with shared values can do even more, especially when they are otherwise diverse in their occupations, backgrounds, and perspectives. — Joseph Menn
We were pirates, not mercenaries. Pirates have a code. — Joseph Menn
If you need to pay me to do math, thats because youve figured out how to starve me unless I do a job. A job creator is someone who figures out how to threaten you with starvation. — Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
On Information and Connection
Copies have been dethroned; the economic model built on them is collapsing. In a regime of superabundant free copies, copies are no longer the basis of wealth. Now relationships, links, connection, and sharing are. — David Shields, Reality Hunger
Value has shifted away from a copy toward the many ways to recall, annotate, personalize, edit, authenticate, display, mark, transfer, and engage a work. — David Shields
On Systems Thinking
Some interconnections in systems are actual physical flows. Many interconnections are flows of information—signals that go to decision points or action points within a system. These kinds of interconnections are often harder to see, but the system reveals them to those who look. — Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems
Systems can be nested within systems. Therefore, there can be purposes within purposes. — Donella Meadows
Youll be thinking not in terms of a static world, but a dynamic one. Youll stop looking for whos to blame; instead youll start asking, Whats the system? — Donella Meadows
On Creative Work
For the morning writing, her ritual is to rise around 5:00, make coffee, and watch the light come. Writers all devise ways to approach that place where they expect to make the contact. For me, light is the signal in the transaction. — Toni Morrison, Daily Rituals
You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. — Shunryu Suzuki
When you bow, you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when you eat, you should just eat. If you do this, the universal nature is there. — Shunryu Suzuki
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic. — Shunryu Suzuki
On Travel and Experience
You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car youre always in a compartment. On a cycle the frame is gone. — Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Life doesnt happen along interstates. Its against the law. — William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways
As soon as my worries became only the old immediate worries of the road—Whens the rain going to stop? Who can you trust to fix a waterpump around here?—then I would slow down. — William Least Heat-Moon
On Community
Thats the walkaway dilemma. If you take without giving, youre a mooch. If you keep track of everyone elses taking and giving, youre a creep scorekeeper. — Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
What bothers me about the whole concept of pacifism, is that its fundamentally elitist. Poor people who have to live every day with violence by police arent going to see anything admirable in inviting police violence passively. — David Graeber, Direct Action
Humor is one of the great binding things in the world. The thing about acidheads is, they think authority is funny. — John Perry Barlow
On Personal Growth
Bit by bit, she learned to surf the moods. She recognized the furies as phenomena separate from objective reality. They were private weather, hers to experience alone or share with others as she chose. — Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
When your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts. If you keep your original mind, the precepts will keep themselves. — Shunryu Suzuki
Books Worth Reading
Technology: - Cult of the Dead Cow by Joseph Menn - What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff - The Idea Factory by Jon Gertner - In the Plex by Steven Levy
Philosophy: - Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig - Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Systems: - Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows - Company of One by Paul Jarvis - The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber
Creative Process: - Reality Hunger by David Shields - The War of Art by Steven Pressfield - Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
Culture: - Direct Action by David Graeber - Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin - Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
Fiction: - Walkaway by Cory Doctorow - The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin - Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Note
These quotes come from years of reading. They are starting points for thinking, not final answers. Read the original books. Find your own connections. Keep questioning everything.