“
Politeness is the first thing people lose once they get the power.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
You need mountains, long staircases don't make good hikers.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
All worries are less with wine.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
The job of feets is walking, but their hobby is dancing.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Great losses are great lessons.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Take care of your costume and your confidence will take care of itself.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Anger gets you into trouble, ego keeps you in trouble.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Seeing the mud around a lotus is pessimism, seeing a lotus in the mud is optimism.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Be a worthy worker and work will come.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Father has a strengthening character like the sun and mother has a soothing temper like the moon.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Hunger gives flavour to the food.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Respect cannot be inherited, respect is the result of right actions.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Arrogant men with knowledge make more noise from their mouth than making a sense from their mind.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
In your name, the family name is at last because it's the family name that lasts.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Some people when they see cheese, chocolate or cake they don't think of calories.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
The decision is your own voice, an opinion is the echo of someone else's voice.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
A farmer is a magician who produces money from the mud.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Common man's patience will bring him more happiness than common man's power.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Some of us can live without a society but not without a family.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Mixing old wine with new wine is stupidity, but mixing old wisdom with new wisdom is maturity.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Networking isn't how many people you know, it's how many people know you.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
If you can't impress them with your argument, impress them with your actions.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
During your struggle society is not a bunch of flowers, it is a bunch of cactus.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Fail soon so that you can succeed sooner.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
With right fashion, every female would be a flame.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Travelling the road will tell you more about the road than the google will tell you about the road.
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Amit Kalantri
“
Today it is cheaper to start a business than tomorrow.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Parents expect only two things from their children, obedience in their childhood and respect in their adulthood.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Fashion doesn't make you perfect, but it makes you pretty.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
It's time to shop high heels if your fiance kisses you on the forehead.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
During a conversation, listening is as powerful as loving.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
If thinking should precede acting, then acting must succeed thinking.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
The smell of the sweat is not sweet, but the fruit of the sweat is very sweet.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
He who sacrifices his respect for love basically burns his body to obtain the light.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Cowards say it can't be done, critics say it shouldn't have been done, creator say well done.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Good becomes better by playing against better, but better doesn't become the best by playing against good.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
The mistakes of the world are warning message for you.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
In the business people with expertise, experience and evidence will make more profitable decisions than people with instinct, intuition and imagination.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Be a true traveller, don't be a temporary tourist.
”
”
Amit Kalantri
“
If the farmer is rich, then so is the nation.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
In general, poor is polite and rich is rude.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Any girl with a grin never looks grim.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Think of what it must have been like in the Scholomance for all those years it was closed,” said Dru, her eyes gleaming with horror-movie delight. “All the way up in the mountains, totally abandoned and dark, full of spiders and ghosts and shadows . . .”
"If you want to think about somewhere scary, think about the Bone City,” said Livvy. The City of Bones was where the Silent Brothers lived: It was an underground place of networked tunnels built out of the ashes of dead Shadowhunters.
“I’d like to go to the Scholomance,” interrupted Ty.
“I wouldn’t,” said Livvy. “Centurions aren’t allowed to have parabatai.”
“I’d like to go anyway,” said Ty. “You could come too if you wanted.”
“I don’t want to go to the Scholomance,” said Livvy. “It’s in the middle of the Carpathian Mountains. It’s freezing there, and there are bears.”
Ty’s face lit up as it often did at the mention of animals. “There are bears?”
“Enough chatter,” said Diana.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1))
“
What luck has gave you will probably leave you.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
A professional who doesn't deliver as committed is not just lazy, he is a liar.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Power does not pardon, power punishes.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Texting is not talking and a phone is not a friend.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Passion makes you good, but pride stops you to get better.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
In a democracy, there will be more complaints but less crisis, in a dictatorship more silence but much more suffering.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
I keep thinking about all the kids who got wiped out by seventeen years of war movies before coming to Vietnam to get wiped out for good. You don’t know what a media freak is until you’ve seen the way a few of those grunts would run around during a fight when they knew that there was a television crew nearby; they were actually making war movies in their heads, doing little guts-and-glory Leatherneck tap dances under fire, getting their pimples shot off for the networks. They were insane, but the war hadn’t done that to them. Most combat troops stopped thinking of the war as an adventure after their first few firefights, but there were always the ones who couldn’t let that go, these few who were up there doing numbers for the cameras… We’d all seen too many movies, stayed too long in Television City, years of media glut had made certain connections difficult.
”
”
Michael Herr (Dispatches)
“
In united families, they might sleep with half filled stomach but no one sleeps with empty stomach.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Hands can cook, hands can create, hands can kill. There is no better tool than our hands.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
When you were making excuses someone else was making enterprise.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Dresses don't look beautiful on hangers.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
You cannot choose your face but you can choose your dress.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
A true professional not only follows but loves the processes, policies and principles set by his profession.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
With discipline, you can lose weight, you can excel in work, you can win the war.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
A good swordsman is more important than a good sword.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Don't mention your move before you make a move.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Dresses won't worn out in the wardrobe, but that is not what dresses are designed for.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Before we complicated life with money, machines and missiles we did well with morals, manpower and meetings.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Ability to find the answers is more important than ability to know the answers.
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Amit Kalantri
“
An entrepreneur with strong network makes money even when he is asleep.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
To a farmer dirt is not a waste, it is wealth.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
You can take the Indian out of the family, but you cannot take the family out of the Indian.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
An invention is a responsibility of the individual, society cannot invent, it can only applaud the invention and inventor.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Creativity without discipline will struggle, creativity with discipline will succeed.
”
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
If where you are is worthwhile then where you are from doesn't matter.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
An assembly is extra slow in taking actions.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
A powerful process automatically takes care of progress, productivity and profits.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Let someone else be the most powerful country, make ours the most peaceful country.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Prudence is precaution, prudence is protection.
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”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Failure was a luxury we couldn't afford, all chained together as we were, our fates locked up tight. One box office flop from a female director and no one wanted "girl" movies, one stock market plunge from a company with a woman CEO and women couldn't lead, one false accusation and we were liars, all of us. Because when we failed it was because of our chromosomes, it wasn't because of a market dip or an ineffective advertising campaign or plain bad luck.
”
”
Chandler Baker (Whisper Network)
“
The next phase of the Digital Revolution will bring even more new methods of marrying technology with the creative industries, such as media, fashion, music, entertainment, education, literature, and the arts. Much of the first round of innovation involved pouring old wine—books, newspapers, opinion pieces, journals, songs, television shows, movies—into new digital bottles. But new platforms, services, and social networks are increasingly enabling fresh opportunities for individual imagination and collaborative creativity. Role-playing games and interactive plays are merging with collaborative forms of storytelling and augmented realities. This interplay between technology and the arts will eventually result in completely new forms of expression and formats of media. This innovation will come from people who are able to link beauty to engineering, humanity to technology, and poetry to processors. In other words, it will come from the spiritual heirs of Ada Lovelace, creators who can flourish where the arts intersect with the sciences and who have a rebellious sense of wonder that opens them to the beauty of both.
”
”
Walter Isaacson (The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution)
“
Where once universities, corporations, movie studios, and the like had been governed by a combination of relatively simple chains of command and informal patronage networks, we now have a world of funding proposals, strategic vision documents, and development team pitches—allowing for the endless elaborations of new and ever more pointless levels of managerial hierarchy, staffed by men and women with elaborate titles, fluent in corporate jargon, but who either have no firsthand experience of what it's like to do the work they are supposed to be managing, or who have done everything in their power to forget it.
”
”
David Graeber (Bullshit Jobs: A Theory)
“
instead.” “Do you really have to curse so much? And are you serious when you use terms like hit the pavement? This isn’t a movie or one of those weekly cop shows. Policemen and women, and investigators like Lizzy, don’t need to ‘hit the pavement’ now that so much information is at their fingertips. It’s not stupid. It’s life in the modern world. Pretty soon they won’t need to chase after criminals in high-speed chases either. The police will tag a car with a laser-guided GPS tracking system. Once the transmitter is attached to the fleeing car, the police can track the suspect over a wireless network, then hang back and let the crook believe he’s outrun
”
”
T.R. Ragan (Dead Weight (Lizzy Gardner, #2))
“
Trekking means a travelling experience with a thrilling excitement.
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Amit Kalantri
“
No tricks, no tools, but talent makes a task truly top class.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Making a product is just an activity, making a profit on a product is the achievement.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
TV movie announced by USA Network also occupied Mary Kay's time and though she didn't
”
”
Gregg Olsen (If Loving You is Wrong)
“
In a democracy government is the God.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
State first, subject second, statesman last.
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”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
A poor, who hates power, once become powerful, hates poor.
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”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
The purpose of a profession is to fulfil the personal wishes of a prospect.
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”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
An old fashioned outfit is not a costume, it's a comedy.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Simplicity saves strength.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Action achieves ambition.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
For few matters you need to be solo, for some matters you need soul mate and for many matters you need society,
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”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
The way that identity has been commercialised through movies and TV, and now through social networking, means we’re all sort of working to a script, a collective idea of what needs to happen next.
”
”
Linda Papadopoulos (Whose Life Is It Anyway?: Living Life on Your Own Terms)
“
Digital networks are increasing the fluidity of all media. The old choice between one-way public media (like books and movies) and two-way private media (like the phone) has now expanded to include a third option: two-way media that operates on a scale from private to public.
”
”
Clay Shirky
“
My mother hated the kids on the network television show Fame,1 which was based on (and which featured some of the kids from) the big hit movie Fame. (Okay, she didn’t really hate them; she just couldn’t figure out why they were all thirty-five years old and still in high school.
”
”
Melissa Rivers (The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation)
“
Trends working at least marginally towards the implantation of a very narrow range of attitudes, memories and opinions include control of major television networks and newspapers by a small number of similarly motivated powerful corporations and individuals, the disappearance of competitive daily newspapers in many cities, the replacement of substantive debate by sleaze in political campaigns, and episodic erosion of the principle of the separation of powers. It is estimated (by the American media expert Ben Bagditrian) that fewer than two dozen corporations control more than half of the global business in daily newspapers, magazines, television, books and movies!
”
”
Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)
“
My mother showed her gratitude for her life in exile by alluding to India’s modernity: the expansive railway network; the Bollywood movies she came to love for their tumultuous stories which ultimately conceded to the cardinal guidelines she held in her own life- love, family and duty. Still, it was Tibet’s antiquity that anchored her in exile. It was phayul she longed for when her skin was scorched by the summer heat of India’s plains. When she drank milk she compared it to the milk of her childhood for such sweetness and creaminess was not easily forgotten, and when she felt nauseous riding the buses that weaved their way around curvaceous mountain roads she spoke of the horses she had loved to ride.
”
”
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (A Home in Tibet)
“
Watch movies. Read screenplays. Let them be your guide. […] Yes, McKee has been able to break down how the popular screenplay has worked. He has identified key qualities that many commercially successful screenplays share, he has codified a language that has been adopted by creative executives in both film and television. So there might be something of tangible value to be gained by interacting with his material, either in book form or at one of the seminars.
But for someone who wants to be an artist, a creator, an architect of an original vision, the best book to read on screenwriting is no book on screenwriting. The best seminar is no seminar at all.
To me, the writer wants to get as many outside voices OUT of his/her head as possible. Experts win by getting us to be dependent on their view of the world. They win when they get to frame the discussion, when they get to tell you there’s a right way and a wrong way to think about the game, whatever the game is. Because that makes you dependent on them. If they have the secret rules, then you need them if you want to
get ahead.
The truth is, you don’t.
If you love and want to make movies about issues of social import, get your hands on Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplay for Network. Read it. Then watch the movie. Then read it again.
If you love and want to make big blockbusters that also have great artistic merit, do the same thing with Lawrence Kasdan’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark screenplay and the movie made from it.
Think about how the screenplays made you feel. And how the movies built from these screenplays did or didn’t hit you the same way. […] This sounds basic, right? That’s because it is basic. And it’s true. All the information you need is the movies and screenplays you love. And in the books you’ve read and the relationships you’ve had and your ability to use those things.
”
”
Brian Koppelman
“
SOCIAL/GENERAL ICEBREAKERS
1. What do you think of the movie/restaurant/party?
2. Tell me about the best vacation you’ve ever taken.
3. What’s your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
4. If you could replay any moment in your life, what would it be?
5. What one thing would you really like to own? Why?
6. Tell me about one of your favorite relatives.
7. What was it like in the town where you grew up?
8. What would you like to come back as in your next life?
9. Tell me about your kids.
10. What do you think is the perfect age? Why?
11. What is a typical day like for you?
12. Of all the places you’ve lived, tell me about the one you like the best.
13. What’s your favorite holiday? What do you enjoy about it?
14. What are some of your family traditions that you particularly enjoy?
15. Tell me about the first car you ever bought.
16. How has the Internet affected your life?
17. Who were your idols as a kid? Have they changed?
18. Describe a memorable teacher you had.
19. Tell me about a movie/book you’ve seen or read more than once.
20. What’s your favorite restaurant? Why?
21. Tell me why you were named ______. What is the origin of your last name?
22. Tell me about a place you’ve visited that you hope never to return to.
get over your mom’s good intentions.
23. What’s the best surprise you’ve ever received?
24. What’s the neatest surprise you’ve ever planned and pulled off for someone else?
25. Skiing here is always challenging. What are some of your favorite places to ski?
26. Who would star as you in a movie about your life?
Why that person?
27. Who is the most famous person you’ve met?
28. Tell me about some of your New Year’s resolutions.
29. What’s the most antiestablishment thing you’ve ever done?
30. Describe a costume that you wore to a party.
31. Tell me about a political position you’d like to hold.
32. What song reminds you of an incident in your life?
33. What’s the most memorable meal you’ve eaten?
34. What’s the most unforgettable coincidence you’ve experienced or heard about?
35. How are you able to tell if that melon is ripe?
36. What motion picture star would you like to interview? Why?
37. Tell me about your family.
38. What aroma brings forth a special memory?
39. Describe the scariest person you ever met.
40. What’s your favorite thing to do alone?
41. Tell me about a childhood friend who used to get you in trouble.
42. Tell me about a time when you had too much to eat or drink.
43. Describe your first away-from-home living quarters or experience.
44. Tell me about a time that you lost a job.
45. Share a memory of one of your grandparents.
46. Describe an embarrassing moment you’ve had.
47. Tell me something most people would never guess about you.
48. What would you do if you won a million dollars?
49. Describe your ideal weather and why.
50. How did you learn to ski/hang drywall/play piano?
”
”
Debra Fine (The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills and Leave a Positive Impression!)
“
Sometime in the fifties I remember seeing On the Waterfront in the movies with Mary and thinking that I’m at least as bad as that Marlon Brando character and that some day I’d like to get in union work. The Teamsters gave me good job security at Food Fair. They could only fire you if they caught you stealing. Let me put it another way, they could only fire you if they caught you stealing and they could prove it. • chapter eight • Russell Bufalino In 1957 the mob came out of the closet. It came out unwillingly, but out it came. Before 1957 reasonable men could differ over whether an organized network of gangsters existed in America. For years FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had assured America that no such organization existed, and he deployed the FBI’s greatest resources to investigate suspected Communists. But as a result of the publicity foisted on the mob in 1957, even Hoover came on board. The organization was dubbed “La Cosa Nostra,” meaning “this thing of ours,” a term heard on government wiretaps. Ironically,
”
”
Charles Brandt ("I Heard You Paint Houses", Updated Edition: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa)
“
Why do you hate the idea of being with yourself so much that ‘the time you spend with yourself is now considered as loneliness
Why we fear loneliness. The fear of loneliness was injected into our minds since we were kids. We have learned that the kid who eats alone, sits alone, and has no friends is pathetic. In every book or movie, the kid who is eating alone, and has no friend is always featured as a weak character who needs to be saved.
It’s not pathetic to be alone. I realized that we don’t hate being alone. We hate to believe that we are left behind.
Being alone is a part of life. But being lonely means viewing yourself from the lens of sympathy and misery. When you look at yourself through the lens of loneliness, you feel insecure and left out.
Being alone doesn’t mean you are lonely. Being alone means YOU ARE WITH YOURSELF.
Stop romanticizing your life , one day someone will come to save you, rescue you, or rather fall in love with you. The problem with this is that you CHOOSE to believe that YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH to change your life all by yourself. You rely your hope on someone who doesn’t exist.
After college, you don’t make friends. You just network. You just try to be nice to people so you are not left behind (mostly).
We don’t want people to think that no one chose us so what do we do? We start becoming like an ideal version of whom everyone loves. We start saying YES to things that we hate. But step by step, as we become like everyone else, we go far away from who we truly are.
Loneliness is not when you don’t have people around. Loneliness occurs when you cannot find yourself inside you. The moment you feel the loss of your real self, that’s when loneliness makes a home inside you.
“There are some days when you miss yourself more than you have ever missed anyone else.
Solitude is my home , Loneliness was my cage.
Imagine Yourself as a computer and see how you have opened different tabs of your personality for each person you meet. New person, new tab. Perhaps, that's the reason your real personality has crashed.
”
”
Renuka Gavrani
“
This series capitalized on the new Red scare of the early 1950s: 78 episodes were recorded, without any assistance from the FBI, which refused to cooperate. It didn’t matter: anti-Communist hysteria was at a peak, and by the end of 1952 I Was a Communist was scheduled on more than 600 stations—far more than if it had been on any network. The show was based on the book (and subsequent movie) by Matt Cvetic and purportedly told of his adventures as an undercover operative who joined the Communist Party to spy from within. Many of the stories contained double-edged conflicts: Cvetic constantly jockeyed for information, walking a tightrope among suspicious Party officials while unable to reveal his true mission even to his family, who shunned him. Communists were stereotyped, much as Hitler’s Nazis had been a few years before: they were seen as cold and humorless, with their single goal to enslave the world. Cvetic could never be sure who might be a Party spy. Dana Andrews gave it an air of Hollywood glamor, always closing with these words: “I was a Communist for the FBI. I walk alone.
”
”
John Dunning (On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio)
“
Nope. Look. The Raft is a media event. But in a much more profound, general
sense than you can possibly imagine."
"Huh?"
"It's created by the media in that without the media, people wouldn't know it
was here, Refus wouldn't come out and glom onto it the way they do. And it
sustains the media. It creates a lot of information flow-movies, news reports -
- you know."
"So you're creating your own news event to make money off the information flow
that it creates?" says the journalist, desperately trying to follow. His tone
of voice says that this is all a waste of videotape. His weary attitude
suggests that this is not the first time Rife has flown off on a bizarre
tangent.
"Partly. But that's only a very crude explanation. It really goes a lot deeper
than that. You've probably heard the expression that the Industry feeds off of
biomass, like a whale straining krill from the ocean."
"I've heard the expression, yes."
"That's my expression. I made it up. An expression like that is just like a
virus, you know -- it's a piece of information -- data -- that spreads from one
person to the next. Well, the function of the Raft is to bring more biomass.
To renew America. Most countries are static, all they need to do is keep having
babies. But America's like this big old clanking, smoking machine that just
lumbers across the landscape scooping up and eating everything in sight. Leaves
behind a trail of garbage a mile wide. Always needs more fuel...
"Now I have a different perspective on it. America must look, to those poor
little buggers down there, about the same as Crete looked to those poor Greek
suckers. Except that there's no coercion involved. Those people down there
give up their children willingly. Send them into the labyrinth by the millions
to be eaten up. The Industry feeds on them and spits back images, sends out
movies and TV programs, over my networks, images of wealth and exotic things
beyond their wildest dreams, back to those people, and it gives them something
to dream about, something to aspire to. And that is the function of the Raft.
It's just a big old krill carrier."
Finally the journalist gives up on being a journalist, just starts to slag L.
Bob Rife openly. He's had it with this guy. "That's disgusting. I can't
believe you can think about people that way."
"Shit, boy, get down off your high horse. Nobody really gets eaten. It's just
a figure of speech. They come here, they get decent jobs, find Christ, buy a
Weber grill, and live happily ever after. What's wrong with that?
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
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The US traded its manufacturing sector’s health for its entertainment industry, hoping that Police Academy sequels could take the place of the rustbelt. The US bet wrong.
But like a losing gambler who keeps on doubling down, the US doesn’t know when to quit. It keeps meeting with its entertainment giants, asking how US foreign and domestic policy can preserve its business-model. Criminalize 70 million American file-sharers? Check. Turn the world’s copyright laws upside down? Check. Cream the IT industry by criminalizing attempted infringement? Check. It’ll never work. It can never work. There will always be an entertainment industry, but not one based on excluding access to published digital works. Once it’s in the world, it’ll be copied. This is why I give away digital copies of my books and make money on the printed editions: I’m not going to stop people from copying the electronic editions, so I might as well treat them as an enticement to buy the printed objects.
But there is an information economy. You don’t even need a computer to participate. My barber, an avowed technophobe who rebuilds antique motorcycles and doesn’t own a PC, benefited from the information economy when I found him by googling for barbershops in my neighborhood.
Teachers benefit from the information economy when they share lesson plans with their colleagues around the world by email. Doctors benefit from the information economy when they move their patient files to efficient digital formats. Insurance companies benefit from the information economy through better access to fresh data used in the preparation of actuarial tables. Marinas benefit from the information economy when office-slaves look up the weekend’s weather online and decide to skip out on Friday for a weekend’s sailing. Families of migrant workers benefit from the information economy when their sons and daughters wire cash home from a convenience store Western Union terminal.
This stuff generates wealth for those who practice it. It enriches the country and improves our lives.
And it can peacefully co-exist with movies, music and microcode, but not if Hollywood gets to call the shots. Where IT managers are expected to police their networks and systems for unauthorized copying – no matter what that does to productivity – they cannot co-exist. Where our operating systems are rendered inoperable by “copy protection,” they cannot co-exist. Where our educational institutions are turned into conscript enforcers for the record industry, they cannot co-exist.
The information economy is all around us. The countries that embrace it will emerge as global economic superpowers. The countries that stubbornly hold to the simplistic idea that the information economy is about selling information will end up at the bottom of the pile.
What country do you want to live in?
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Cory Doctorow (Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future)