Focus, as Steve Jobs said, is about saying no. The only dangerous competitors are focused ones. Ergo there are things that even the most dangerous… - Paul Graham

Those in authority tend to be annoyed by hackers’ general attitude of disobedience. But that disobedience is a byproduct of the qualities that make them good programmers.

What made the Florentines rich in 1200 was the discovery of new techniques for making the high-tech product of the time, fine woven cloth. What made the Dutch rich in 1600 was the discovery of shipbuilding and navigation techniques that enabled them to dominate the seas of the Far East.

The success of Apple's new microprocessors (combined with Intel's failure) has upset a lot of people's predictions. It's pretty impressive for an established company to throw everyone a curve ball on that scale.