E Teller Quotes

Per i prossimo dieci anni la tua vita sarà orribile, avrai grandi problemi e niente ti andrà bene", dice l'indovino. "E poi?", chiede ansioso il cliente. "Poi? Poi ci farai l'abitudine!

I can't tell jokes.' 'Mr. Grey! Something you can't do?' I grin at him, and he grins back. 'No, hopeless joke teller.' He looks so proud of himself that I start to giggle.

La mobilità sociale ha aperto a tutti la possibilità di aspirare a qualsiasi cosa, ma con ciò nessuno è più "predestinato" a nulla. È forse per questo che la gente è sempre più disorientata e incerta sul senso della propria vita.

In quelle condizioni era naturale essere depresso, come è naturale che lo sia per chiunque abbia ancora un'idea di quel che la vita potrebbe essere e non è. La depressione diventa un diritto, quando uno si guarda attorno e non vede niente o nessuno che lo ispiri, quando il mondo sembra scivolare via in una gora di ottusità e di grettezza materialista.

E non dimenticare, straniero, che il sole sorge dalla nostra parte, che l'Est è l'Est, l'Ovest è l'Ovest e che questo non lo si può cambiare. [...] Il sole sorge da noi e noi un giorno domineremo il mondo perché abbiamo tutto quel che ci vuole per farlo. Abbiamo terra, abbiamo gente, abbiamo risorse. [...] Allora, straniero, ricordatelo: il futuro è qua!

While a 10x improvement is gargantuan, Teller has very specific reasons for aiming exactly that high. “You assume that going 10x bigger is going to be ten times harder,” he continues, “but often it’s literally easier to go bigger. Why should that be? It doesn’t feel intuitively right. But if you choose to make something 10 percent better, you are almost by definition signing up for the status quo—and trying to make it a little bit better. That means you start from the status quo, with all its existing assumptions, locked into the tools, technologies, and processes that you’re going to try to slightly improve. It means you’re putting yourself and your people into a smartness contest with everyone else in the world. Statistically, no matter the resources available, you’re not going to win. But if you sign up for moonshot thinking, if you sign up to make something 10x better, there is no chance of doing that with existing assumptions. You’re going to have to throw out the rule book. You’re going to have to perspective-shift and supplant all that smartness and resources with bravery and creativity.” This perspective shift is key. It encourages risk taking and enhances creativity while simultaneously guarding against the inevitable decline. Teller explains: “Even if you think you’re going to go ten times bigger, reality will eat into your 10x. It always does. There will be things that will be more expensive, some that are slower; others that you didn’t think were competitive will become competitive. If you shoot for 10x, you might only be at 2x by the time you’re done. But 2x is still amazing. On the other hand, if you only shoot for 2x [i.e., 200 percent], you’re only going to get 5 percent and it’s going to cost you the perspective shift that comes from aiming bigger.” Most critically here, this 10x strategy doesn’t hold true just for large corporations. “A start-up is simply a skunk works without the big company around it,” says Teller. “The upside is there’s no Borg to get sucked back into; the downside is you have no money. But that’s not a reason not to go after moonshots. I think the opposite is true. If you publicly state your big goal, if you vocally commit yourself to making more progress than is actually possible using normal methods, there’s no way back. In one fell swoop you’ve severed all ties between yourself and all the expert assumptions.” Thus entrepreneurs, by striving for truly huge goals, are tapping into the same creativity accelerant that Google uses to achieve such goals. That said, by itself, a willingness to take bigger risks

The whole place is now beginning to close down. At some of the booths the flares have been extinguished, and the occupants are busy packing up their wares and taking down their tents and wooden stalls. Huge vans have appeared upon the scene, and men in shirt sleeves are busily engaged in packing them. We accost a small dirty youth and ask him if the fair is moving. ‘We’ll be on the road in twa hours,’ he replies briefly. ‘What a life!’ ejaculates Tony. ‘Aye, it’s a fine life,’ echoes the boy. ‘Ye get seeing the wurrld in a fair.’ All mystery has departed from the fortune teller’s tent; it is merely a heap of dirty canvas. A large, fat woman with greasy black hair, and a red shawl pinned across her inadequately clad bosom, is dancing about with a flaming torch in her hand, directing operations in a shrill shrewish voice. ‘Guthrie’s sybil!’ says Tony sadly. ‘I’m afraid we’ve stayed too long at the party.’ ‘I think it is rather fun,’ I reply. ‘I like seeing things that I’m not meant to see

Ogni posto è una miniera. Basta lasciarcisi andare. Darsi tempo, stare seduti in una casa da tè a osservare la gente che passa, mettersi in un angolo del mercato, andare a farsi i capelli e poi seguire il bandolo in una matassa che può cominciare con una parola che si è appena incontrata e il posto più scialbo, più insignificante della terra diventa uno specchio del mondo, una finestra sulla vita, un teatro di umanità dinanzi al quale ci si potrebbe fermare senza più bisogno di andare altrove. La miniera è esattamente là dove si è: basta scavare.

Part of what makes credit cards work is that they simplify transactions for both buyers and sellers. Concentrating on just a few cards further simplifies matters on both sides of the market. Thus ever since the big shakeout, no new credit cards have joined the ranks of the majors; the barrier to market entry has proved to be too great. That said, in recent years the Internet revolution has opened the door to competition from wholly new directions—including new kinds of payment services, such as PayPal; an international network of automatic teller machines to challenge old standbys such as traveler’s checks; and maybe even new types of “virtual money” such as Bitcoin. As I write this in 2014, Apple has announced a new payment system on the latest iPhones, and we can reasonably expect that it and/or other new payment systems that make use of mobile devices will become commonplace.

The possibility that one might be proven wrong by future discoveries is a risk shared by historians, but never faced by story-tellers.

The best stories (whether book or movie) involve redemption. If you are someone who believes you have made too many mistakes or your life has been too "bad" for God to want you, think of it this way: God, the greatest story teller, has not yet finished your story, and He can make it a really great story by including a really great redemption. All of us, in truth, need a really great redemption, which means, through Jesus, all of us have a really great story.

Wenn man einen Mann hat, der einen so gut wie nie berührt. Wenn man einen Mann hat, der einen zu oft berührt, der einen an der Hand packt und sie auf die ausgebeulte Hose legt, während man gerade etwas über Elektrozäune für Golden Retriever liest. Wenn man einen Mann hat, der lieber zockt, als dass er einen am Arm berührt. Wenn man einen Mann hat, der einem das Brötchen vom Teller klaut, wenn man es einen Moment zu lang hat liegen lassen, aber noch nicht fertig war. Wenn man gar keinen Mann hat. Wenn einem der Mann gestorben ist. Wenn einem die Frau gestorben ist. Wenn die Frau den Penis ihres Mannes ansieht wie ein Stück übrig gebliebenen Hackbraten, das sie nicht essen, aber auch nicht wegschmeißen will. Wenn die eigene Frau spät in der Schwangerschaft eine Fehlgeburt hatte und nicht mehr derselbe Mensch ist und sich von einem ab- und in E-Mails einem anderen zuwendet.

A great way to observe the interplay between emotion and the cognitive load of recounting a fictional narrative, is to ask directly about emotions. Many people rehearse details but don’t plan ahead with how they’re going to respond emotionally (i.e., pretend!). For example, the FBI agent might ask how someone felt to “discover” a dead body. This might take the person a while to answer (because they didn’t build this piece of info into their lie) or they may reply with no emotion or else a very unconvincing display. The truth teller will be able to almost instantly answer in a genuine way, often displaying the same emotion there and then. Besides asking questions, cognitive overload can be utilized in another way to reveal lying.

Bisognava entrare nei recessi di quello straordinario palazzo al buio, e solo lentamente scoprire, nella luce tramolante delle lampade al burro, le smorfie delle ogre e i sorrisi benevoli dei Buddha. Il neon pra impedisce ogni scoperta, tarpa le ali a chi voglia ancora abbandonarsi ai voli dello spirito.

You are a dream your brain has always dreamt, a story it tells itself. But a tale once told does not belong to the teller, but to the reader, the world. Compose your story, and you may not only withstand the pain and the darkness, but you may escape your body altogether…

Tutti dobbiamo chiederci - e sempre - se quel che stiamo facendo migliora e arricchisce la nostra esistenza. O abbiamo tutti, per una qualche innaturale deformazione, perso l'istinto per quel che la vita dovrebbe essere, e cioè soprattutto un'occasione di felicità?

The emptiness of the bunker haunts me still. Five and a half years since we last cowered in its dark interior, listening for the low growl of approaching planes or the muffled reverberation of nearby bomb strikes. Five and a half years since something inexplicable happened in the midst of all that darkness and waiting and fear. The truth haunts my brother and sister, too, I know. Poor darling Jamie, who works so hard and never quite feels he's doing enough. Poor lovely Phillipa, off in America, running from our past. As for me, I refuse to be pitied. I refuse to be anyone but who I've always been: Evelyn Hapwell, teller of truths and walker of worlds, friend of the Woodlands and enemy of tyrants, beloved of Cervus, the Guardian of the Great Wood. The words Cervus once spoke to me are emblazoned on my bones, writ large across every inch of my skin. A Woodlands heart always finds its way home. Your words, Cervus, not mine. No matter how many years pass, I plan to hold you to them.