Random & Curiosities
A cabinet of curiosities, aphorisms, favorite quotes, and serendipitous discoveries. In the spirit of the old web, this page is where uncategorized miscellany finds a home.
Essay Roulette
Can’t decide what to read? Let randomness choose an essay for you.
Favorite Quotes
On Thinking
“The purpose of thinking is to let the spear go through the idea instead of through you.”
On Simplicity
“Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.”
On Reading & Solitude
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
On Craft
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Micro Thoughts
- The easiest way to make a system fast is to make it do less work.
- Most arguments are not about disagreements on facts, but about differences in unstated premises and definitions.
- Writing down what you believe forces you to confront how little you actually know about it.
- The best tools feel like physical instruments: immediate, quiet, and predictable.
Curated Rabbit Holes
A few interesting corners of the web worth getting lost in:
- List of unsolved problems in philosophy — A fascinating index of open questions.
- Low-tech Magazine (Solar Powered) — A website hosted on a solar server in Barcelona that goes offline when cloudy.
- The Useless Web — A nostalgic portal to whimsical single-purpose websites.
Questions Worth Pondering
- What is something you believed strongly five years ago that you now think is completely wrong?
- If you had to work on one question for the next decade without publishing until the end, what would it be?
- Which habits are you maintaining purely out of social inertia?