"For ever endeavor." SDM October 2007
"Americans are passionate about insignificant topics and indifferent toward the essential items." JMA Summer 2006
"...Nimzovich became then for me more or less the author of the only book which could help me get away from these Euwe books, which, I admit, are very good for the ordinary club player. But once you've reached a certain strength you get the impression that everything that Euwe writes is a lie." Bent Larsen quoted in )Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal p.25
"My sister paints blazes." JMA about MPA Nov 2005
"That is not comparing apples to Oranges, that is like comparing analysis to understanding. " JMA+MDC July 2005
"To see what is right and not do it is want of courage." Confucius
"What you don't do can be a destructive force." Eleanor Roosevelt
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Excuses outnumber solutions. " CL April 2005
"I would like to be busier, but I just don't have the time." MPA Mar 2005
"One good thing about beating a dead horse is that it won't kick you." CWB Dec 2004
"When one finds himself in a difficult situation she should be careful with its pronouns." JKM+JMA April 2004
"The actions taken by the New Hampshire Episcopalians are an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and his wife Anne Boleyn, and his wife Jane Seymour, and his wife Anne of Cleves, and his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer here to suffer through this assault on traditional Christian marriage ..." FKB November 2003
"Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees." Psalm 119:83
"Be careful when you are ahead. A chess player that is a piece down is like a wounded animal." TAC Feb 2003
"I may not be smart but I can lift heavy things." JF Jan 2003
"Only the ambitious player becomes a solid master, and that by breaking that fear. How? By being prepared to play out every game. He must gamble on losing; there is no other way of winning. We all make mistakes. A determined player makes fewer, and those he does make are more often overlooked simply because of the pressure and tension he exerts on his rival! " William Lombardy
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the real great make you feel that you, too, can become great." Mark Twain
Consider the Mark Twain quote about who to avoid!
"This creates a dilemma when the one dampening
your dreams is the person of your dreams." JMA Jan 2003
"Some of the things we want from the past never were." JMA Jan 2003
"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone " Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
"Today I got to vote for someone I agree with 100%. Me!" JMA 5 Nov 2002
"She isn't as Blond as she looks." CFA Oct 2002
"It doesn't hurt until you try." MSB April 2002
"You're not in your fifties. You're in your fifty!" RED Dec 2001
"We have Obsessive Compulsive Advantage." MPA+JMA Dec 2001
"Help! Help! I'm being impressed." CWB Dec 2001
"All the people I know are strange. All the people I don't know are strangers." JMA+CWB Nov 2001
"I meant to make that move, but I didn't see it." MGS+RED+CWB Nov 2001
"If you are going to do something wrong, do it right!" RED Nov 2001
"Learning to play chess by playing the NAO is like learning to swim by jumping off the Titanic." JMA2JF Sep 2001
"I am going to keep my mouth shut so I don't get quoted." CWBjr Aug 2001
"I just play poorly over the board so no one suspects my real ability." JJL Aug 2001
"I don't get it!" RED Aug 2001
"Your situation is so bad, don't even bother to give up!" MPA Aug 2001
"You gotta let the monkey win sometimes." DBC3 quoted by DBC4
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.'' -- Mark Twain
'Tis the mark of an instructed mind to rest assured with that degree of precision that the nature of the subject admits, and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible. ARISTOTLE
Perhaps the reader may ask, of what consequence is it whether the author's exact language is preserved or not, provided we have his thought? The answer is, that inaccurate quotation is a sin against truth. It may appear in any particular instance to be a trifle, but perfection consists in small things, and perfection is no trifle. - Robert W. Shaunon
Accuracy and clarity of statement are mutually exclusive. -- Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty. -- Charles Simmons
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln256%Pln256/snlbx]sb31350717901017685422875784 39snlbxq' | dc
"Although that is not like comparing apples and oranges, that is like comparing grapes and vineyards!" SMH+JMA Sep 1995
"Precision is not reality" -- Henri Mattisse, 1947
"PLEASE TRY AGAIN" 862 straight caps on sodas purchased by JMA.
"The journey is its own reward." RJA Jan 1995.
"This is my former colleagues colleague." SMN
Prepare for the worst, but allow the best. JMA
"In looking back over the entire GO-EO experience, it is tempting to blame the failure on management errors, aggressive actions by competitors, and indifference on the part of large corporate partners. While all these played important roles, the project might have withstood them if we had succeeded in building a useful product at a reasonable price that met a clear market need." page 294 of STARTUP by Jerry Kaplan
"Prepositions are ok to end a sentence with." pg. 987 of THE BOOK OF by SMH tbp.
"It all started in the beginning." RD 19 July 1995
"Even the best wrong answer is still wrong." BC July 95.
"You look Miserable." RZ to which JMA responded "Thank you." May 1995
"I see Sensitivity is not one of your problems." RAU to JMA 20 Apr 95.
"It is ok to forgive, but stupid to forget!" BRB Jan 1995
From the business section of The Kansas City Star, Jan 17, 1995: "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949; "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943; "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." - The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957; "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"Power is all perception. Its non-use is its most powerful use. The trick is to use the least amount of power to create the maximum change. Someone who has elegance can apply power selectively, like a laser, and carefully, almost unobtrusively, so that you don't feel you're being overpowered. You feel like you are being motivated." quoted by DMB 1995, from Diane K. Shah or Peter Gruber.
"If millions of years of evolutions show anything, yesterday's meeting was useful" JMA+BC Apr95
We are going to keep having these meetings until we find out why no work is getting done!
"I understand you were Dr. Hoenikkers's supervisor during most of his professional life," I said to Dr. Breed on the telephone. "On paper," he said. "I don't understand," I said. "If I actually supervised Felix," he said," then I'm ready now to take charge of volcanoes, the tides, and the migration of birds and lemmings. The man was a force of nature no mortal could possibly control." Kurt Vonnegut in Cat's Cradle.
As Bokonon says: "Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God." Kurt Vonnegut in Cat's Cradle.
These words were a paraphrase of the suggestion by Jesus: "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." Bokonon's paraphrase was this: "Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on." Kurt Vonnegut in Cat's Cradle.
*The Moth and the Star* by James Thurber (from "Fables for Our Time")
A young and impressionable moth once set his heart on a certain star. He told his mother about this and she counseled him to set his heart on a bridge lamp instead. "Stars aren't the thing to hang around," she said: "lamps are the thing to hang around." "You get somewhere that way, " said the moth's father. "You don't get anywhere chasing stars." But the moth would not heed the words of either parent. Every evening at dusk when the star came out he would start flying toward it and every morning at dawn he would crawl back home worn out with his vain endeavor. One day his father said to him, "You haven't burned a wing in months, boy, and it looks to me as if you are never going to. All your brothers have been badly burned flying around street lamps and all your sisters have been terribly singed flying around house lamps. Come on, now, get out of here and get yourself scorched! A big strapping moth like you without a mark on him!"
The moth left his father's house, but he would not fly around street lamps and he would not fly around house lamps. He went right on trying to reach the star, which was four and one-third light years, or twenty-five trillion miles away. The moth thought it was just caught in the top branches of an elm. He never did reach the star, but he went right on trying, night after night, and when he was a very, very old moth he began to think that he really had reached the star and he went around saying so. This gave him a deep and lasting pleasure, and he lived to a great old age. His parents and his brothers and his sisters had all been burned to death when they were quite young.
Moral: Who flies afar from the sphere of our sorrow is here today and here tomorrow.
Recommended books: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Hitchiker's guide to the Universe, Player Piano, Cat's Cradle, Anthem, Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead, High Output Management, Fables for Our Time, Marketing High Technology, Start Up, Going Public, On Negotiating, the story of MIPSCO, and of course, Deriving Accurate Fault Models.
When in doubt, don't
better a delay than a disaster
Nice guys finish last, and they like it.
When in danger; when in doubt; run in circles, scream and shout!
He who hesitates is lost.
Or as they say in Alaska, "He who hesitates is frost."
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." R. W. Emerson, Self Reliance Essays: First Series.
"This is a complex project. Obviously it has a real part and an imaginary part." WMH 25 July 1989.
"Sometimes I think you have a lack of respect for your betters. yeah, yeah, yeah, you *would* have respect for them if you could just find any of them ..." TL 11 Feb 1991.
"If we must comply, so must they." This is in reference to circuit output specs with respect to circuit input specs.
As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd go away." Hugh Mearns(?)
"What is the difference between reality and perception?" everyone asks. "I don't see any difference." JMA responds.
"When labor loses its mobility, it loses its value." AMR's dad.
"I am not going to worry about dying because it won't happen in my lifetime." 13 Dec 1991 S. B-N.
Meeting rules by JML 1991:
1) Listen. 2)Speak only when value added. 3) stop when finished.
added by JML for JMA in 1992:
4) Be patient. 5) Choose your battles.
6)"I know you are trying very hard to listen,
but I am failing to articulate my meaning."
"We are talking about history, now, not what actually happened." DBC4 17 Dec 1992
"We are not arguing. We are involuntary partners in a mutual search for truth." JMA 1992
"5% and 8% are about the same." DC 2 October 1992.
"Every time you open your mouth there are 2*n + 3 messages: What you said. What you meant to say. What you thought you said. What the other n person(s) heard. What the other n person(s) thought you meant. Where n is the number of listeners.
State of the art, enabling, innovative, flexible, dynamic software.
"Life is the consumption of food to avoid chemical equilibrium." WMH Nov 91
"Don't be encumbered by history. Go off and do something Wonderful!" RN 1970
The day my ship came in I was hit by a train.
"The design team must learn to finish the design before marketing can change its mind." Product Development Video October 1992.
"Most of our so called reasoning consists in finding reasons for going on believing as we already do." James Harvey Robinson The Borzoi College Reader pg. 42
"You have heard it said that the early bird gets the worm. You have also heard it said that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So the next time you want a bucket of greasy worms, get up early and squeak a lot!" JMA 1993
"Only the paranoid survive." A. S. Grove
"To do what you want is freedom, To do what you like is happiness, To have to do what you don't like is reality."
"How's the world treating you?" I ask. JMT responds, " Actually it's not- I am paying my own way, and I'm getting tired of it."
Example of counter productive team building efforts: " They said, 'We hate each other. Why should we bond.'" Carlene Ellis 17 March 1993.
We weren't there when it didn't happen.
Insanity: Doing the same things exactly the same way and expecting different results.
Some people learn by conceiving ideas. Some people learn by being told. Some people learn by observation. Some people have to learn by experience. Some people never learn.
In 1982 UCB won the big game with The Play. The moral for both sides is Don't Quit.
When a reporter asks a tough question, the correct response is
"I'm not an expert in that area, but what I can tell you is..."
PR class Feb 1999
"Deep down you are still superficial." DS December 1998
"Not all trappers wear fur hats." FKB 20 October 1998
"The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret." FKB 14 September 1998
"Can you really know someone without their business cards?" RLC 8 May 1998
"I think you should be asked so that when you are told the answer you will think you had input." JMA 2 Feb 1998
"I have dead relatives that aren't as cold as she is." MAA Jan 1998
"Meetings can finish early." Nov 1992
"Theoretically, meetings can finish early." May 1998 update
"The masses don't always appreciate the best." RJA Oct 1997
"If you can't laugh at yourself, someone else will do it for you."
PK Nov 1995, overheard at Dilbert book signing.
"If the trumpeter makes an uncertain sound, how can the troops prepare themselves for battle?" ECS 8 Nov 1995
"Which Verdict?" HK at ITC Oct 95
JMA said "Paraphrase." About which SMN asked, "Does that beat two kings?" at ITC Oct 95
"That's the very last potato?" AJ at ITC OCt 95
Saturday, 3 June 1995. While I was walking up Mission Peak I passed a family walking down. I saw they had a little guy about 4, and I asked him if he made it to the top. His mother said, "Tell him yes!" The boy was silent. His father said," Tell him yes!" The boy was silent until I passed by them. Then I overheard them talking. The boy said, "That was scary." His mother said, "Shh!" Then the boy said,"He looked like a monster." Ok, Ok, so it might not surprise you that anyone thinks JMA is a monster - but it made me smile for while.
"Being a victim does not imply virtue." JMA+BC Apr 95.
"Jalapenos, they're not just for breakfast anymore." JH Jan 95
"There are quite a few people glad to see you get out of here!" DJ July 94
"The squeaky wheel makes the most noise." SMH
About empowerment: " You are playing bring me a rock. The king says, 'Bring me a rock.' When the subject brings a rock, the king says, 'that is not good enough, bring me another rock.'" Ron Sacci 19 July 94
"There is a big difference between what people want and what they
are willing to pay for." AY in DT plan93 presentation 20 Nov 1992
"Prioritization by immediate gratification." TM 14 Dec 1992
On 7 December 1992, after a long day of management problems, DZ said, "This is why I got into engineering."
"Life is frittered away on the details. Choose your fritters carefully." AH 20 Nov 1992
"Wait for me. I'm your leader!" LB 14 Feb 1992
"Don't be limited by your management." JMA said about JMA 14 Feb 1992
"We have more than just a vision. We have a plan!" Intel Supercomputing marketing video 1992.
Materialistic, alcoholic, hedonistic festival of excessive consumption.
Some celebrants of the traditional electrowasto season were surprised when PGE formally pronounced electrowastoday!
Speculative errata
Anticipatory Gratitude
"People are Stupid." SDM approximately 1987
"So, what's your point?" SDM approximately 1985
"A problem well stated is a problem half solved." CFA 1981
"Going to church no more makes you a Christian
than [sleeping/standing/being] in your garage makes you a car."
Garrison Keiler, also Billy Sunday (19 Nov 1862 - 6 Nov 1935)