"Many things people like, especially if they're young and ambitious, they like largely for the feeling of virtue in liking them. 99% of people readin… - Paul Graham

If you really want to hold yourself to a high standard, graph the growth rate of the number you care about instead of the number itself. Then you're winning if you can even keep it flat.

If we ever undertake multi-generation trips to distant stars, the initial crew will be optimistic enthusiasts, but their grandchildren will have reverted to the mean and will curse their grandparents for consigning them to live and die aboard a spaceship.

Language policing is so creepy. You can tell the people who do it aren't real writers, or they could never produce the horrible rules they come up with. It's like priests telling people how to have sex.