I'm not very good with people. I'm *especially* not very good with people, who show any signs of hostility. I cope, by... Actually, i don't.
I'm not very good with people. I'm *especially* not very good with people i don't really know. I cope, by pretending other people don't exist.
Who would win in a fight, the Not Evil corporation, or an arbitrarily large number of ordinary people? Judging from the amount of resources the former pours into convincing the latter that it is, in fact, their best friend, i think they know the answer.
It might be difficult to get someone to prove something to you, when not only does his well-being *not* depend on you being convinced, but it *does* depend on someone else *not* being convinced. In some cases, it is ambiguity that's the best policy.
"Free money!" — "Thanks for the offer, but i'd rather that i was paid because someone appreciates what i'm doing, not because of free giveaways." — "But... Free money?" — "...Ah, what the hell."
No, "taking over the world" is not a mission. It's something that happens naturally when you're doing something extremely right for a while.
If i had a dollar every time i said "if i had a dollar", i would be saying "if i had a dollar" much more often than i do presently.
If you can successfully convince people you are doing something useful, actually doing something useful is superfluos. Though, this only works short-term; Sooner or later, someone is going to catch up. No matter how good you are, you're not going to be able to out-PR the entire world indefinitely.
Dear scammer: You're not fooling anyone, you know; But, still, kudos for the fascinating email that managed to keep my interest for a whole six minutes.
Freedom of speech: the fundamental right of every human to express their agreement with the speaker's views.
"I'm a little man; If my boss orders me to go and boss people around, I'm going and I'm bossing people around!"
The inherent strength of FOSS lies in the fact that no matter how much they may want to, no one can make you do things their way.
Today, i make nonspecific remarks regarding the criminalization of what basically amounts to a medical condition!
"Thou shall not tell me what to think. Thou shall tell me what I *want* to think."
"Lost profits" is a surprisingly dishonest concept. In effect, it is an attempt to hold someone liable for the disrepancy between reality and your speculation on what reality *could have been*. Conceivably, you *could have been* winning the lottery every week over the last ten years; And yet, you don't seem to be in any rush to pay the taxes from those potential winnings...
The more desperately you want to avoid a conflict, the worse it will be, when it finally breaks out.
"I'm a serious man! I do serious stuff! And even when i do some stupid crap, i'm doing it very seriously!"
Any security setup, that relies on the goodwill of some party, is worth only as much, as that party's goodwill. Which is, not that much.
"...And then, it occurred to me, for the first time in several weeks, that all this time i was worrying about *the well-being of a self-regulating system*."