Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them. -- Alan Perlis

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.

In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true and try to find out what it could be true of. -- George Miller

Linux is only free if your time has no value. -- Jamie Zawinski

But what is it good for? -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968

The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it [Leadership]. -- Dwight D. Enseinhover.

Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan

The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it. ~Henry Ford

In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it. ~Jane Smiley

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. ~ Jim Rohn