Quotes About Adaptation

Sie lernt Wüstenbewohner- // gesten. Arabisch lernt sie auch, aber nach vielen // Mühen gibt sie es wieder auf, denn sie ist // unvergleichlich weniger begabt für Sprachen als fürs // Revolutionieren.

Tu avais raison, lui dit-elle, l'Elgolie n'existe pas. Pas comme je le croyais, en tout cas. Mais je n'ai renoncé à rien. J'ai décidé de faire de la Galnicie une sorte d'Elgolie à ma façon. Qu'en penses-tu ? — Te connaissant, répondit Filomène avec un large sourire, je pense... que tu es parfaitement capable d'y arriver, Princetta !

And yet what has been learned can be unlearned.

The Amoeba?" she asked Aiden. "The gang," he said, tossing his hand to indicate all around. "My people. A large amorphous mass that keeps on changing size, hasn't much apparent use, sometimes makes you sick, and occasionally breaks off into smaller parts that act exactly like the parent.

Soon the cold would force them inside, so they clutched at lost summer.

We can take it slow," he said. "You can learn to be with me. Find out what I'm all about. You never know, you might like what you find.

There was a time when any idea of voluntary limitation was regarded by pious people as interfering with Providence. We are beyond that now, and have become capable of recognising that Providence works through the common sense of individual brains.

The true basis of morality is utility; that is, the adaptation of our actions to the promotion of the general welfare and happiness; the endeavour so to rule our lives that we may serve and bless mankind.

We might think of ourselves as open-minded and capable of updating our beliefs based on new information, but the research conclusively shows otherwise. Instead of altering our beliefs to fit new information, we do the opposite, altering our interpretation of that information to fit our beliefs.

Identifying a negative outcome doesn't have the same personal sting if you turn it into a positive by finding things to learn from it. You don't have to be on the defensive side of every negative outcome because you can recognize, in addition to things you can improve, things you did well and things outside your control. You realize that not knowing is okay.

Contrary to popular belief, winners quit a lot. That's how they win.

By not quitting, you are missing out on the opportunity to switch to something that will create more progress toward your goals. Anytime you stay mired in a losing endeavor, that is when you are slowing your progress. Anytime you stick to something when there are better opportunities out there, that is when you are slowing your progress.

They learned the lesson the ants have down pat: Don't wait to be forced to quit to start exploring alternatives.

Quit and grit are two sides of the exact same decision. Decision-making in the real world requires action without complete information. Quitting is the tool that allows us to react to new information that is revealed after we make a decision.

The status quo represents a mental account that we already have open, which has sunk costs associated with it, the time, money, or effort that has already been put into the way we've been doing things. Closing that account by switching to a new option can make us feel like we are wasting those resources we have already spent. We also become endowed to the status quo, taking ownership of the decisions that have kept us in that groove and anything we have created along the way.

Charles Duhigg, in The Power of Habit, offers the golden rule of habit change—that the best way to deal with a habit is to respect the habit loop: "To change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.

That's why, if I had to skill somebody up to get them to be a better decision-maker, quitting is the primary skill I would choose, because the option to quit is what allows you to react to that changing landscape.

It is uncomfortable to think about the possibility of failure, but it's worth it to live in that discomfort because you will be better prepared if things don't turn out according to your ideal.

Exacerbating the pass-fail problem is that once we establish a goal, we rarely revisit it. Goals tend to be set-it-and-forget-it. The finish line doesn't move.

Of course, the world is uncertain and the world does change. That means that our goals ought to change in response. But the goals we set are remarkably unresponsive to new information.

When it comes to quitting, the most painful thing to quit is who you are.

The way we process new information is driven by the beliefs we hold, strengthening them.

As these things change, if we were to rerun the cost-benefit analysis, the output would surely be different. But we don't rerun it.

I can say that Nick the Greek lost a lot of money based on his beliefs—or, more accurately, because he ignored lots of feedback that his strategy was a losing one. He eventually went broke because he didn't recognize learning opportunities as they arose.