The more arbitrary the rules imposed by an authority — the more at odds they are with reality — the more opportunities they create for hacking them. - Paul Graham

If you want to get someone famous to speak at your event, you're much more likely to get them to agree if it's a Q&A session rather than a talk. A talk = a week of worry for those who are not professional talkers (e.g. politicians), whereas a Q&A session you just show up for.

But it was not till the Industrial Revolution that wealth creation definitively replaced corruption as the best way to get rich. In England, at least, corruption only became unfashionable (and in fact only started to be called “corruption”) when there started to be other, faster ways to get rich.

One good thing about habitually taking super long to write things is that you don't slow down noticeably as you age.