Quotes

Here's a list of quotes that have impacted me.

No assumptions untested.

— Jayme Hoffman (me)

Try and fail, but don't fail to try.

— John Quincy Adams

A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept … What I mean is that how fast you learn is a lot more important than how much you know to begin with.

— Professor John Ousterhout 🔗

Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven't asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go.

— Clayton Christensen

Everything on earth depends on will. I never had an idea in my life. I've got no imagination. I never dream. My so-called inventions already existed in the environment—I took them out. I've created nothing. Nobody does. There's no such thing as an idea being brain-born. Everything comes from the outside. The industrious one coaxes it from the environment; the drone lets it lie there while he goes off to the baseball game.

— Thomas Edison

We learned quickly that the most important predictor of success is determination.

— Paul Graham 🔗

Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Great stories happen to those who can tell them.

— Ira Glass

Pain plus reflection equals progress.

— Ray Dalio

Whatever the thing is that you're trying to create what would be the utility delta compared to the current state of the art times how many people it would effect. Having something that makes a big difference but effects small to moderate number of people is great as is something that makes even a small difference but effects a vast number of people.

— Elon Musk 🔗

Feedback beats planning. No grand plans, follow the gradient of user value.

— John Carmack 🔗