Quotes About Influence

It is always convenient to invoke universalism when you are in the majority.

Society doesn't evolve by consensus, voting, majority, committees, verbose meetings, academic conferences, tea and cucumber sandwiches, or polling; only a few people suffice to disproportionately move the needle. All one needs is an asymmetric rule somewhere—and someone with soul in the game. And asymmetry is present in about everything.

You may prefer apples to oranges, oranges to pears, but pears to apples—it depends on how the choices are presented to you. The

You need a story to displace a story. Metaphors and stories are far more potent (alas) than ideas; they are also easier to remember and more fun to read. If I have to go after what I call the narrative disciplines, my best tool is a narrative.

Why do we keep focusing on the minutiae, not the possible significant large events, in spite of the obvious evidence of their huge influence?

perception of causation has a biological foundation.

it is easy to see that history is truly written by losers with time on their hands and a protected academic position.

we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers. Once

Their focus becomes to play politics

And many of the problems of society come from the argument "other people are doing it.

some classes of people use hidden options and harm the collective without anyone realizing.

many problems in society come from the interventions of people who sell complicated solutions because that's what their position and training invite them

many problems in society come from the interventions of people who sell complicated solutions because that's what their position and training invite them to do.

When you spend time of the bridge of a ship or in a coxswain's station with a large compass in front, you can easily develop the impression that the compass is directing the ship rather than merely reflecting its direction.

Borrowed wisdom can be vicious. I need to make a huge effort not to be swayed by well-sounding remarks. I remind myself of Einstein's remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age eighteen.

his showing up during a battle was the equivalent of adding twenty-five thousand troops.

There is no penalty for opinion makers who harm society.

People do not realize that the media is paid to get your attention.

Genes follow majority rule; languages minority rule. Languages travel; genes less so.

It hit me that the rich were natural targets;

A higher concentration of dopamine appears to lower skepticism and result in greater vulnerability to pattern detection;

No single observation can meaningfully affect the aggregate.

the behavior of the total is dictated by the preferences of a minority.

We remember the martyrs who died for a cause that we knew about, never those no less effective in their contribution but whose cause we were never aware of—precisely because they were successful.