” In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under an introduction of extended experience, is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical characters can only be estimated by the standard which human experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished. To form correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a great whole–we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom they are surrounded; and, in contemplating the incidents in their lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than the respective probability of its details. “

Alexander Pope, introduction to his translation of Homer’s Odyssee.

Question: What are some friendly ways to share information with a shy person, a know-it-all, a scared person, someone who does not speak my language well?
People who begin their sentences with “You Know What YOU SHOULD Do …” are not only disrespectful of other points of view, but ten to one they don’t listen very well either. It is rare that someone wants a command from another person: more often than not a friendly clue is much more useful to a quest. (When someone asks us if we know what we SHOULD do, we want to answer YES, and close the conversation.) Sometimes, the language you use shows if you are listening well.

Patricia Wagner and Leif Smith, The Networking Game

People with no imagination try to make things which will last for ever, and even want to live for ever themselves. But the intelligently imaginative man knows very well that it is waste of labor to make a machine that will last ten years, because it will probably be superseded in half that time by an improved machine answering the same purpose. He also knows that if some devil were to convince us that our dream of personal immortality is no dream but a hard fact, such a shriek of despair would go up from the human race as no other conceivable horror could provoke. With all our perverse nonsense as to John Smith living for a thousand million eons and for ever after, we die voluntarily, knowing that it is time for us to be scrapped, to be remanufactured, to come back, as Wordsworth divined, trailing ever brightening clouds of glory.

Shaw, A Treatise on Parents and Children

” Tijdens mijn kantoorwerk viel me op dat de slimste collega’s geen managers waren, maar zelf werkten. Ik zat in een projectgroep met allemaal promovendi, maar zij waren geen managers. De slimste mensen zijn hartchirurg of schrijven ingewikkelde algoritmes voor computers. Zo kwam ik op “Het Dilbert Principe”: hoe hoger iemand in de hiërarchie zit, hoe incapabeler hij is. Je hebt iemand nodig die vergadering bijeenroept, donuts laat komen, statusrapport bestelt en ze vervolgens niet leest. Het is zinvol om zo je hulpbronnen te verdelen dat je je slimme mensen het ingewikkelde werk laat doen. “

Scott Adams, in Intermediair deze week

“The opening titles scrolled and Deayton, his trademark smirk looking just a little more mischievous (or was it desperate?) than normal, threw himself in at the deep end.”

“In case you haven’t already realised,” he said, “the loser of tonight’s show is the presenter. The words pot, kettle, smug, git, good and kicking all come to mind.”

BBC 1, May 24th 10 PM cet
repeated on Saturday

A review of this weeks episode, from the most complete website on the show.