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5a288e3
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Scientists often invent words to fill the holes in their understanding. These words are meant as conveniences until real understanding can be found. Sometimes understanding comes and the temporary words can be replaced with words that have more meaning. More often, however, the patch words will take on a life of their own and no one will remember that they were only intended to be placeholders.
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Scott Adams |
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a1b4fb6
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Clinical psychologists have proven that ordinary people will alter their memories of the past to make them fit their perceptions. It is the way all normal brains function under ordinary circumstances.
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Scott Adams |
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a70eba9
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Everything that motivates living creatures is based on some weakness or flaw. Hunger motivates animals. Lust motivates animals. Fear and pain motivate animals. A God would have none of those impulses. Humans are driven by all of our animal passions plus loftier-sounding things like self-actualization and creativity and freedom and love
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Scott Adams |
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bcccf5b
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Because everything you perceive is a metaphor for something your brain is not equipped to fully understand. God is as real as the clothes you are wearing and the chair you are sitting in. They are all metaphors for something you will never understand.
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Scott Adams |
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7279321
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Women define themselves by their relationships and men define themselves by whom they are helping. Women believe value is created by sacrifice. If you are willing to give up your favorite activities to be with her, she will trust you. If being with her is too easy for you, she will not trust you.
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Scott Adams |
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66f0762
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the past exists only in your mind," he said. "Likewise, the future exists only in your mind because it has not happened."
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Scott Adams |
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6b5210d
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Everything he talked about had a kind of logic to it, but so do many things that are nonsense.
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Scott Adams |
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8378797
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Conversation is more than the sum of the words. It is also a way of signaling the importance of another person by showing your willingness to give that person your rarest resource: time. It is a way of conveying respect. Conversation reminds us that we are part of a greater whole, connected in some way that transcends duty or bloodline or commerce. Conversation can be many things, but it can never be useless.
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Scott Adams |
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40c5d92
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Dogbert to Dilbert "My invention can detect human stupidity. It has a very simple interface. All I do is point it at people."
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Scott Adams |
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65f9c0e
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Recapping my skill set: I have poor art skills, mediocre business skills, good but not great writing talent, and an early knowledge of the Internet. And I have a good but not great sense of humor. I'm like one big mediocre soup. None of my skills are world-class, but when my mediocre skills are combined, they become a powerful market force.
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Scott Adams |
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d27df57
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There is more information in one thimble of reality than can be understood by a galaxy of human brains. It is beyond the human brain to understand the world and its environment, so the brain compensates by creating simplified illusions that act as a replacement for understanding.
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Scott Adams |
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e6d90a4
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If you don't drink coffee, you should think about two to four cups a day. It can make you more alert, happier, and more productive. It might even make you live longer. Coffee can also make you more likely to exercise, and it contains beneficial antioxidants and other substances associated with decreased risk of stroke (especially in women), Parkinson's disease, and dementia. Coffee is also associated with decreased risk of abnormal heart rh..
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coffee-benefits
coffee-lifestyle
coffee-lovers
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Scott Adams |
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ef3a29e
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If you think your odds of solving your problem are bad, don't rule out the possibility that what is really happening is that you are bad at estimating odds.
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Scott Adams |
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ef3b109
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You can't accommodate a hundred different opinions, and you can't ignore them. All you can do is provide people with the illusion that they participated in the decision. For some reason, that's enough to make people happy." This is the basis for all democracies."
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Scott Adams |
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02c55e0
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If you can imagine the future being brighter, it lifts your energy and gooses the chemistry in your body that produces a sensation of happiness. If you can't even imagine an improved future, you won't be happy no matter how well your life is going right now.
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Scott Adams |
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46f6f70
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Women believe that men are, in a sense, defective versions of women, Men believe that women are defective versions of men. Both genders are trapped in a delusion that their personal viewpoints are universal. That viewpoint--that each gender is a defective version of the other--is the root of all misunderstandings.
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Scott Adams |
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5f02ccc
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When you can release on your ego long enough to view your perceptions as incomplete or misleading, it gives you the freedom to imagine new and potentially more useful ways of looking at the world.
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Scott Adams |
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e6d2374
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Skeptics," he said, "suffer from the skeptics' disease-- the problem of being right too often."
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Scott Adams |
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8fe1e1d
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Most important, understand that goals are for losers and systems are for winners.
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Scott Adams |
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dc1755f
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When politicians tell lies, they know the press will call them out. They also know it doesn't matter. Politicians understand that reason will never have much of a role in voting decisions. A lie that makes a voter feel good is more effective than a hundred rational arguments. That's even true when the voter knows the lie is a lie.
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Scott Adams |
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8d3e65d
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Pessimism is often a failure of imagination.
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Scott Adams |
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083548e
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Passion feels very democratic. It is the people's talent, available to all. It's also mostly bullshit.
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Scott Adams |
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b0be68c
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The great thing about reading diverse news from the fields of business, health, science, technology, politics, and more is that you automatically see patterns in the world and develop mental hooks upon which you can hang future knowledge.
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Scott Adams |
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5b662eb
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Unhappiness that is caused by too much success is a high-class problem. That's the sort of unhappiness people work all of their lives to get. If you find yourself there, and I hope you do, you'll find your attention naturally turning outward. You'll seek happiness through service to others. I promise it will feel wonderful.
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Scott Adams |
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f3db8f5
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For our purposes, let's say a goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don't sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it's a system. If you're waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it's a goal.
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Scott Adams |
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391c7ab
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the simplest explanation usually sounds right and is far more convincing than any complicated explanation could hope to be.
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Scott Adams |
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f093577
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Our arrogance causes us to imagine special value in this temporary collection of molecules. Why do we perceive more spiritual value in the sum of our body parts than on any individual cell in our body? Why don't we hold funerals when skin cells die?
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Scott Adams |
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40ecdd8
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If you are proven to be right a hundred times in a row, no amount of evidence will convince you that you are mistaken in the hundred-and-first case. You will be seduced by your own apparent infallibility. Remember that all scientific experiments are performed by human beings and the results are subject to human interpretation. The human mind is a delusion generator, not a window to truth. Everyone, including skeptics, will generate delusion..
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Scott Adams |
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a0708b2
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But never being wrong is no proof that the method of testing is sound for all cases
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Scott Adams |
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b6843c4
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Reality is overrated and impossible to understand with any degree of certainty. What you do know for sure is that some ways of looking at the world work better than others. Pick the way that works, even if you don't know why.
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Scott Adams |
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adea90d
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If you see something that impresses you, a decent respect to humanity insists you voice your praise.
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Scott Adams |
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c58f467
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Idiocy in the modern age isn't an all-encompassing, twenty-four-hour situation for most people. It's a condition that everybody slips into many times a day. Life is just too complicated to be smart all the time.
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humour
reassurance
technology
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Scott Adams |
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320f742
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Sometimes idiots can accomplish wonderful things.
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success
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Scott Adams |
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f48e21a
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I pursued a conscious strategy of managing my opportunities in a way that would make it easier for luck to find me.
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Scott Adams |
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fbfdc23
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shyness is caused by an internal feeling that you are not worthy to be in the conversation.
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Scott Adams |
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5c42e05
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simplicity is not proof of truth. But since we can never understand true reality, if two models both explain the same facts, it is more rational to use the simpler one. It is a matter of convenience.
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Scott Adams |
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a02fbb6
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If, as you say, our minds are delusion generators, then we're all like blind and deaf sea captains shouting orders into the universe and hoping it makes a difference. We have no way of knowing what really works and what merely seems to work. So doesn't it make sense to try all the things that appear to work even if we can't be sure?
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Scott Adams |
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5ad1bb7
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My definition of happiness is that it's a feeling you get when your body chemistry is producing pleasant sensations in your mind.
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Scott Adams |
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61430e7
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Adults are starved for a kind word. When you understand the power of honest praise (as opposed to bullshitting, flattery, and sucking up), you realize that withholding it borders on immoral. If you see something that impresses you, a decent respect to humanity insists you voice your praise.
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Scott Adams |
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cae98ac
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You should also try to figure out which people are thing people and which ones are people people.
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Scott Adams |
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23f5841
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Focus on your diet first and get that right so you have enough energy to want to exercise.
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Scott Adams |
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ab3d29b
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If you believe people use reason for the important decisions in life, you will go through life feeling confused and frustrated that others seem to have bad reasoning skills.
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Scott Adams |
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9df030c
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Es gibt zwei Arten von Menschen: intelligente und attraktive Leute wie Sie [...] und die sechs Milliarden Idioten, die uns im Weg herumstehen.
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Scott Adams |
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2931006
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Scott: What's the cure? Doctor: There is none. Scott: But that isn't what I heard. The optimist in me translated the gloomy news as "Scott, you will be the first person in the world to be cured of spasmodic dysphonia." And I decided that after I cured myself, somehow, someway, I would spread the word to others. I wouldn't be satisfied escaping from my prison of silence. I was planning to escape, free the other inmates, shoot the warden, and..
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inspirational
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Scott Adams |