Golden Age of Non-Fiction Books

We’re living in a golden age of non-fiction books. It seems that every month, new titles appear that change how we see the world.

- Richard Nantel
CEO, Brandon Hall ResearchThe (Lack Of) Wisdom of Crowds

Witty Ones

Fortunately in my work there's always a choice: I can choose to do it willingly or unwillingly.

- Ashleigh Brilliant

People who complain about taxes can be divided into two classes: men and women.

- Unknown

In God we trust; all others must bring data. 

- W. Edwards Deming

You can do anything, but not everything.

- David Allen

At every party, there are two kinds of people - those who want to go home and those who don't. The trouble is that, they are usually married to each other.

- Ann Landers

To an outgoing colleague: I guess you will have more responsibilities from now on. You will be responsible for eveything that would go wrong here.



You cannot step into the same river twice.

- Heraclitus

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

- Mark Twain

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

- T.S. Eliot

The harder I work, the luckier I get.

- Samuel Goldwyn

It's not over until it's over.

- Unknown

Never ask the barber if you need a haircut.

- Warren Buffett

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

- Unknown

[Your position or job can affect how you will look upon a certain event or solution. All behave in a way that serves his/her own interests.]

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

- Abraham Maslow

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

- George Bernard Shaw

These are my principles. And if you don't like them, I have others.

- Groucho Marx

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

- Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut


Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

- William Cowper

[Meaning: just because something can't be proven doesn't mean it's not true.]

It takes twenty years to become an overnight success. 

- Eddie Cantor

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

- Oscar Wilde

Don't add to the truth; if you do, you will subtract from it.

- Unknown

The world wisely prefers happiness to wisdom.

- Will Durant

Some people are so poor, all they have is money.

- Patrick Meagher

Double Juggle: Closed and Open Mind

It is most important to have an open mind, be ready for all the experiences that life has to offer, be flexible enough to absorb contradictory opinions from the world around us, be humble enough to accept that truth can have multiple flavours and dimensions etc. At the same time, it is equally important to be firm and confident about one's thoughts & ideas, to act based on conviction, to have the faith that one's decision will turn out to be appropriate & accurate and so forth.

While it is hard to work with people who think they know it all and rarely have space for outside views and apprehensions, it can be equally hard to work with people who can't take decisions because they have too much of an open mind. If you've learned to juggle the two attitudes so well that it appears like you're not juggling two independent things but just playing an easy game with one continuous entity....you're it.

- From a blog

Analysis Vs. Intuition (Fact Vs Feeling)

In life, the complexity is overwhelming. We can try to impose some logical cognitative order, but there too future gets difficult to discern beyond the immediately near time frame. Intuition is a way of allowing your brain to process a myriad of inputs without imposing artificial rules or constraints that can affect the outcome.

That said, most people use "intuition" as a lazy way to avoid any application of critical thinking. :)

- From Linkedin answers

Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.

- Dr. Joyce Brothers

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

- Title of a book

Thus, we make our decisions in three ways or their combinations:

• Brain - analysis, analytics
• Gut - intuition, gut feeling
• Heart - emotions

The challenge is knowing when to run with the numbers and when to run with your guts.

Mr Nice Guy vs Mr Twitch

In an aggressive - and increasingly - alpha male corporate culture, niceness is seen as sign of weakness.

Mr Nice Guy: Mr. Nice guy would try to couch things in a way that seeks to maintain the ego of the other party, and look for a synthesis of ideas.

Mr Twitch: Not just speed, also severity: Mr. Twitch, on the other hand, is looking for gains on every transaction, and is therefore looking for one up on every situation. It doesn't matter if the other guy is right - just counter with a severity that the other person cannot comprehend, and is therefore forced to back off.

- From a blog

An Uncritical Mass

What happens when people suspend their critical faculties whilst they are basking in the glow of a charismatic presenter?

- From a blog

Why Read?

People who don't read books become, over a period of time, less open to other's ideas, let alone come up with new ideas themselves.

- From a question on Linkedin

A paradox of other people's books is that they often tell us more about our own life than we have been able to grasp alone. It is in the words on someone else's page that return us to a more vivid sense of who we are, and what our world is like.

- Alain de Botton

On Seeing and Noticing

Good writing has the ability to make us feel things we may not otherwise be in a position to feel, and because of that we are fuller, richer human beings.

It has the power to convey profound truths without us having to experience them for ourselves.

- From a blogpost, A rant about the power of compelling writing

• Sometimes it reminds us that we aren’t alone in what we think.
• Other times it exposes us to unfamiliar ways of thinking.
• But reading is not just about thinking; it's also about feeling.
• And don't forget, the written language contains metaphors and other literary devices, making reading intrinsically entertaining.