What do Americans look for in a car? I've heard many answers when I've asked this question. The answers include excellent safety ratings, great gas mileage, handling, and cornering ability, among others. I don't believe any of these. That's because the first principle of the Culture Code is that the only effective way to understand what people truly mean is to ignore what they say. This is not to suggest that people intentionally lie or misrepresent themselves. What it means is that, when asked direct questions about their interests and preferences, people tend to give answers they believe the questioner wants to hear. Again, this is not because they intend to mislead. It is because people respond to these questions with their cortexes, the parts of their brains that control intelligence rather than emotion or instinct. They ponder a question, they process a question, and when they deliver an answer, it is the product of deliberation. They believe they are telling the truth. A lie detector would confirm this. In most cases, however, they aren't saying what they mean. -- The culture code.

An interpreter raises the machine to the level of the user program; a compiler lowers the user program to the level of the machine language. -- SICP

All creativity is an extended form of a joke. -- Alan Kay

The wonderful and frustrating thing about understanding yourself is that nobody can do it for you. -- BetterExplained.com

La connaissance d'un défaut ne l'enlève pas, elle nous torture jusqu'à sa correction. -- Daniel Lovewin (Guillaume Kpotufe)

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. -- Donald Knuth

The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same. ~Colin R. Davis

You can do anything, but not everything. ~Anonymous

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ~Thomas A. Edison

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. ~Dale Carnegie