If you want to kill an idea without being identified as the assassin, suggest that the legal department take a look at it.
Scott AdamsRead
Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion.
Interpretation
Humans often act irrationally in hopes of achieving extraordinary outcomes, which reflects our nature.
In this quote, Scott Adams highlights a fundamental aspect of human behavior: our tendency to engage in irrational actions when seeking out highly improbable rewards. This impulse is evident in various facets of life, such as gambling, seeking love, or even religious faith, suggesting that our motivations often transcend logical reasoning as we chase after dreams that seem nearly unattainable.
In practice
In a motivational speech about taking risks, one could reference this quote to illustrate the nature of pursuing dreams.
If you want to kill an idea without being identified as the assassin, suggest that the legal department take a look at it.
My failed corporate career became the fodder for the 'Dilbert' comic. Once it became clear I would not be climbing any higher on the corporate ladder, it freed me to mock managers without worrying that it would stall my career. Most failures create some sort of unplanned freedom. I took full advantage of mine.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
What does it mean to be yourself?” he asked. “If it means to do what you think you ought to do, then you’re doing that already. If it means to act like you’re exempt from society’s influence, that’s the worst advice in the world; you would probably stop bathing and wearing clothes. The advice to ‘be yourself’ is obviously nonsense. But our brains accept this tripe as wisdom because it is more comfortable to believe we have a strategy for life than to believe we have no idea how to behave.
A person who is obsessed thinks about heaven frequently. Obsessed people orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is here in front of them.
What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.
It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.
Round numbers are always false.
What then in the last resort are the truths of mankind? They are the irrefutable errors of mankind.
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