Quotes About Perspective

Never ask the doctor what you should do. Ask him what he would do if he were in your place. You would be surprised at the difference.

Veteran trader Marty O'Connell calls this the firehouse effect. He had observed that firemen with much downtime who talk to each other for too long come to agree on many things that an outside, impartial observer would find ludicrous (they develop political ideas that are very similar). Psychologists give it a fancier name, but my friend Marty has no training in behavioral sciences.

The fastest way to become rich is to socialize with the poor; the fastest way to become poor is to socialize with the rich.

We do not realize the full extent of the difference between near and far futures. Yet

The "persecution" of the Christians had vastly more to do with the intolerance of the Christians for the pantheon of local gods than the reverse. What we read is history written by the Christian side, not the Greco-Roman one.

We laugh at others and we don't realize that someone will be just as justified in laughing at us on some not too remote day

Veteran trader Marty O'Connell calls this the firehouse effect. He had observed that firemen with much downtime who talk to each other for too long come to agree on many things that an outside, impartial observer would find ludicrous (they

There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.

I noticed that very intelligent and informed persons were at no advantage over cabdrivers in their predictions, but there was a crucial difference. Cabdrivers did not believe that they understood as much as learned people - really, they were not the experts and they knew it. Nobody knew anything, but elite thinkers thought that they knew more than the rest because they were elite thinkers, and if you're a member of the elite, you automatically know more than the nonelite.

I have the fondest memories of time spent in places called ugly, the most boring ones of places called scenic.

It was a different feeling: it is hard to focus on a conversation, especially when it is mathematical, when you have just personally earned several hundreds of times the annual salary of the researcher trying to tell you that you are wrong, by betting against his representation of the world.

While we know that history flows forward, it is difficult to realize that we envision it backward. Why is it so?

Two weekends in Philadelphia are not twice as pleasant as a single one—I've tried.

When the person is highly intelligent, he can astonish you with the most far-fetched, yet completely plausible interpretations of the most innocuous remark. If

What fools call wasting time is most often the best investment.

Mathematics is not just a numbers game, it is a way of thinking.

Anyone looking for confirmation will find enough of it to deceive himself—and no doubt his peers.*

Being reviewed or assessed by others matters if and only if one is subjected to the judgment of future—not just present—others. And recall that, a free person does not need to win arguments—just win.*2

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

Don't look for the precise and local. Simply; do not be narrow minded.

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

This anchoring to a number is the reason people do not react to their total accumulated wealth, but to differences of wealth from whatever number they are currently anchored to. This is the major conflict with economic theory, as according to economists, someone with $1 million in the bank would be more satisfied than if he had half a million. But

There is a Yiddish saying: "If I am going to be forced to eat pork, it better be of the best kind." If I am going to be fooled by randomness, it better be of the beautiful (and harmless) kind.

Life's beauty: the kindest act toward you in your life may come from an outsider not interested in reciprocation.