Re:Ask HN: What is the most surprising quote you ever read?
by bloodorange on Monday July 15, 2013 @01:34AM
(#6043887)
I don't remember the quote verbatim but I read something in "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins - which really felt like a jolt. The book says that an evolutionary stable strategy is one that is immune to treachery from within and needn't be the one that is the most beneficial to the group. Once I digested this, it seemed obvious but when I read that the first time, it really caught me off guard.
Also, Lewis Carroll's quote:
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'
Re:Ask HN: What is the most surprising quote you ever read?
by shreyas-satish on Monday July 15, 2013 @10:53AM
(#6045906)
"Seek out negative feedback. Ask your friends NOT to tell you what they like about your product, but rather what they don't like. Underweight positive feedback, and overweight the negative." - Elon Musk
Asking a friend - "What don't you like about it?" - can be counter intuitive. But I'd swap negative for critical feedback, and Mr Musk may have even meant that. (At least going by his hyperloop announcement - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/356776740409974785)
Also, Lewis Carroll's quote:
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'
still makes me think about how we use language.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/05/computers-useless/
Asking a friend - "What don't you like about it?" - can be counter intuitive. But I'd swap negative for critical feedback, and Mr Musk may have even meant that. (At least going by his hyperloop announcement - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/356776740409974785)
Can't remember who said this, but I think is spot on for us entrepreneurs.
Ludwig Wittgenstein