Lessons from Einstein | Hacker News Reader

Lessons from Einstein

paulocoelhoblog.com

51 pointstathagatadg13 comments

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Original article at:

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2010/03/10-amazing-lessons-albe...

I hate when people does this. That is, polluting the net. They truly suck.

Yeah, totally agree with you. Wouldnt be nice if Paulo added where he got it from?

"by PAULO COELHO on MARCH 16, 2012"

At the end of the article it reads "Source: Dumb little man"

I dont think it was there before

Even worse when the quotes are misattributed, eg the "insanity" quote is Rita Mae Brown, and she was paraphrasing Narcotics Anonymous.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

[Rita Mae] Brown did include this quote in her book Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983), p. 68, but it appears she was just paraphrasing a quote that had already been written elsewhere. The earliest known appearance of a similar quote is the "approval version" of the Narcotics Anonymous "Basic Text" released in November 1981, which included the quote "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." A pdf scan of the 1981 approval version can be found here, with the quote appearing on p. 11 (p. 25 of the pdf), at the end of the fourth paragraph (which begins "We have a disease; progressive, incurable and fatal").

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rita_Mae_Brown#Misattributed

As some who co-founded quantum mechanics, Einstein would never have said such a stupid thing. You expect to get different results from doing the same measurement in the same quantum mechanical system, that's the basis of it.

> You expect to get different results from doing the same measurement in the same quantum mechanical system, that's the basis of it.

As it turns out, AE had a problem with that particular point. Hence his "[God] does not play dice" quote.

Bravo! Do this more :)

Incidentally, Sudden Death is a tennis murder mystery - how many of those are there? Rita Mae Brown was Martina Navratilova's partner for a few years. And she's actually pretty cool: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1723482,00.html. "I'll go to my grave knowing I didn't back down."

Since Coelho is essentially stealing this content and, worse, has such bad taste in what he steals, I think it's fair to recall this amusing specimen of acidic British wit:

"Everyone has something interesting to say," Coelho said at one point, clearly showing that he's never had a conversation with one of his fans.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/10/startups-in...

What a terrible choice of my picture. I did it as a joke and now it gets used everywhere.

Exercise for the reader. Which of these quotes are bogus and which did Einstein really say? There is at least one in each category. Somebody save me from tracking all the rest down... I have work to do!

'Never settle' is a brag.

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/10/never-settle-is-a-brag...

I'd add one more - take goddamn action. No matter how much imagination and how many resources you have, you'll get nothing done if you don't actually start doing something.

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