Being around some of the bright lights of the technology world and having them expect great things helps you sit down and do it seriously.
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz
Most people’s major life
Most people’s major life changes don’t come from reading an article in the newspaper; they come from reading longer-form essays or thoughtful books, which are much more convincing and detailed.
Aaron Swartz
What is “this drive”?
What is “this drive”? It’s the tendency to not simply accept things as they are but to want to think about them, to understand them. To not be content to simply feel sad but to ask what sadness means. To not just get a bus pass but to think about the economic reasons getting a bus pass makes sense. I call this tendency the intellectual.
Aaron Swartz
Steadfastness is a noble
Steadfastness is a noble quality, but unguided by knowledge or humility, it becomes rashness, or obstinacy.
Aaron Swartz
Only those blinded by
Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Aaron Swartz
Reality is painful —
Reality is painful — it’s so much easier to keep doing stuff you know you’re good at or else to pick something so hard there’s no point at which it’s obvious you’re failing — but it’s impossible to get better without confronting it.
Aaron Swartz
But like all power,
But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
Aaron Swartz
The adults were completely
The adults were completely wrong.
Aaron Swartz
Books are totally useless
Books are totally useless unless you take their advice. If you just keep reading them, thinking that’s so insightful! that changes everything, but never actually doing anything different, then pretty quickly the feeling will wear off and you’ll start searching for another book to fill the void.
Aaron Swartz
Creativity comes from applying
Creativity comes from applying things you learn in other fields to the field you work in.
Aaron Swartz