“
The populace fell for this trick every time because they didn’t believe the Masters existed, or that anyone could be that evil. The Masters made sure to assign the label of being a conspiracy theorist to those smart and observant enough to have figured it out and were trying to warn others. The populace would then disregard and ridicule the whistleblower because the Masters had programmed the populace to react harshly to individuals who this label was applied to. The population had been programmed to negatively react to many ideas and labels, but the conspiracy-theorist label was one of the most heavily programmed because it was paramount for the Masters to stay hidden behind the curtains. You can’t dethrone a king if you don’t know they exist.
”
”
Jasun Ether (The Beasts of Success)
“
We are taught that the body is an ignorant animal intelligence dwells only in the head. But the body is smart. It does not discern between external stimuli and stimuli from the imagination. It reacts equally viscerally to events from the imagination as it does to real events.
”
”
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
“
At that moment, when I had the TV sound off, I was in a 382 mood; I had just dialed it. So although I heard the emptiness intellectually, I didn't feel it. My first reaction consisted of being grateful that we could afford a Penfield mood organ. But then I realized how unhealthy it was, sensing the absence of life, not just in this building but everywhere, and not reacting—do you see? I guess you don't. But that used to be considered a sign of mental illness; they called it 'absence of appropriate affect.' So I left the TV sound off and I sat down at my mood organ and I experimented. And I finally found a setting for despair. So I put it on my schedule for twice a month; I think that's a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything, about staying here on Earth after everybody who's smart has emigrated, don't you think?
”
”
Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
“
Life is a journey for us all. We all face trials. We all have ups and downs. All of us are human. But we are also the masters of our fate. We are the ones who decide how we are going to react to life.
”
”
Elizabeth Smart (My Story)
“
If someone you know gets sick from taking a flu shot, you will be less likely to get one even if it is statistically safe. In fact, if you see a story on the news about someone dying from the flu shot, that one isolated case could me enough to keep you away from the vaccine forever. On the other hand, if you hear a news story about how eating sausage leads to anal cancer, you will be skeptical, because it has never happened to anyone you know, and sausage, after all, is delicious. The tendency to react more rapidly and to a greater degree when considering information you are familiar with is called the availability heuristic.
”
”
David McRaney (You Are Not So Smart)
“
Are you all right?" A crease appears between his eyebrows, and he touches my cheek gently.I bat his hand away.
"Well," I say, "first I got reamed out in front of everyone,and then I had to chat with the woman who's trying to destroy my old faction,and then Eric almost tossed my friends out of Dauntless,so yeah,it's shaping up to be a pretty great day,Four."
He shakes his head and looks at the dilapidated building to his right, which is made of brick and barely resembles the sleek glass spire behind me. It must be ancient.No one builds with brick anymore.
"Why do you care,anyway?" I say. "You can be either cruel instructor or concerned boyfriend." I tense up at the word "boyfriend." I didn't mean to use it so flippantly,but it's too late now. "You can't play both parts at the same time."
"I am not cruel." He scowls at me. "I was protecting you this morning. How do you think Peter and his idiot friends would have reacted if they discovered that you and I were..." He sighs. "You would never win. They would always call your ranking a result of my favoritism rather than your skill."
I open my mouth to object,but I can't. A few smart remarks come to mind, but I dismiss them. He's right. My cheeks warm, and I cool them with my hands.
"You didn't have to insult me to prove something to them," I say finally.
"And you didn't have to run off to your brother just because I hurt you," he says. He rubs at the back of his neck. "Besides-it worked,didn't it?"
"At my expense."
"I didn't think it would affect you this way." Then he looks down and shrugs. "Sometimes I forget that I can hurt you.That you are capable of being hurt."
I slide my hands into my pockets and rock back on my heels.A strange feeling goes through me-a sweet,aching weakness. He did what he did because he believed in my strength.
At home it was Caleb who was strong,because he could forget himself,because all the characteristics my parents valued came naturally to him. No one has ever been so convinced of my strength.
I stand on my tiptoes, lift my head, and kiss him.Only our lips touch.
"You're brilliant,you know that?" I shake my head. "You always know exactly what to do."
"Only because I've been thinking about this for a long time," he says, kissing my briefly. "How I would handle it, if you and I..." He pulls back and smiles. "Did I hear you call me your boyfriend,Tris?"
"Not exactly." I shrug. "Why? Do you want me to?"
He slips his hands over my neck and presses his thumbs under my chin, tilting my head back so his forehead meets mine. For a moment he stands there, his eyes closed, breathing my air. I feel the pulse in his fingertips. I feel the quickness of his breath. He seems nervous.
"Yes," he finally says. Then his smile fades. "You think we convinced him you're just a silly girl?"
"I hope so," I say.
”
”
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
“
I will admit, there are times when I’ll react, do it fast and do it on gut. But I lived through some serious shit and I’m still doin’ it. I learned you don’t carry through with a kneejerk response. You think about shit and you do it smart. Eliminate blowback. Get the shit job done in a way you can move ahead free and easy.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (Motorcycle Man (Dream Man, #4))
“
Why do you care, anyway?" I say. "You can be either cruel instructor or concerned boyfriend." I tense up at the word "boyfriend." I didn’t mean to use it so flippantly, but it’s too late now. "You can’t play both parts at the same time."
"I am not cruel." He scowls at me "I was protecting you this morning. How do you think Peter and his idiot friends would have reacted if they discovered that you and I were..." He sighs. "You would never win. They would always call you ranking a result of my favoritism rather than your skill."
I open my mouth to object, but I can't. A few smart remarks come to mind, but I dismiss them. He's right. My cheeks warm, and I cool them with my hands.
"You didn't have to insult me to prove something to them," I say finally.
"And you didn't have to run off to your brother just because I hurt you," he says. He rubs at the back of his neck.
"Besides- it worked, didn't it?"
"At my expense."
"I didn't think it would affect you this way." Then he looks down and shrugs. "Sometimes I forget that I can hurt you. That you are capable of being hurt."
I slide my hands into my pockets and rock back on my heels. A strange feeling goes through me- a sweet, aching weakness. He did what he did because he believed in my strength.
At home it was Caleb who was strong, because he could forget himself, because all the characteristics my parents valued came naturally to him. No one has ever been so convinced of my strength.
I stand on my tiptoes, lift my head, and kiss him. Only our lips touch.
"You're brilliant. You know that?" I shake my head. "You always know exactly what to do."
"Only because I've been thinking about his for a long time," he says, kissing me briefly. "How I would handle it, if you and I..." He pulls back and smiles. "Did I hear you call me your boyfriend, Tris?"
"Not exactly." I shrug. "Why? Do you want me to?"
He slips his hands over my neck and presses his thumbs under my chin, tilting my head back so his forehead meets mine. For a moment he stands there, his eyes closed, breathing my air. I feel the pulse in his fingertips. I feel the quickness of his breath. He seems nervous.
"Yes," he finally says.
”
”
Veronica Roth
“
You’re not helping,” I say.
“How about this: You can’t control how she reacts, but you can control what you do. So you do you. Be your best and hope for the best.”
“I am paying you forty dollars an hour, and all you can come up with is you do you?” I ask.
“Your parents are paying me, smart-ass.”
“Fair enough,” I say, because it’s true. They are.
”
”
Julie Buxbaum (What to Say Next)
“
What of Thought? The Crew had developed a kind of shorthand whereby they could set forth any visions that might come their way. Conversations at the Spoon had become little more than proper nouns, literary allusions, critical or philosophical terms linked in certain ways. Depending on how you arranged the building blocks at your disposal, you were smart or stupid. Depending on how others reacted they were In or Out. The number of blocks, however, was finite.
"Mathematically, boy," he told himself, "if nobody else original comes along, they're bound to run out of arrangements someday. What then?" What indeed. This sort of arranging and rearranging was Decadence, but the exhaustion of all possible permutations and combinations was death.
It scared Eigenvalue, sometimes. He would go in back and look at the set of dentures. Teeth and metals endure.
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (V.)
“
Many moral advances have taken the form of a shift in sensibilities that made an action seem more ridiculous than sinful, such as dueling, bullfighting, and jingoistic war. And many effective social critics, such as Swift, Johnson, Voltaire, Twain, Oscar Wilde, Bertrand Russell, Tom Lehrer, and George Carlin have been smart-ass comedians rather than thundering prophets. What in our psychology allows the joke to be mightier than the sword?
Humor works by confronting an audience with an incongruity, which may be resolved by switching to another frame of reference. And in that alternative frame of reference, the butt of the joke occupies a lowly or undignified status. ...
Humor with a political or moral agenda can stealthily challenge a relational model that is second nature to an audience by forcing them to see that it leads to consequences that the rest of their minds recognize as absurd. ...
According to the 18th-century writer Mary Wortley Montagu, 'Satire should, like a polished razor keen / Wound with touch that's scarcely felt or seen.' But satire is seldom polished that keenly, and the butts of a joke may be all too aware of the subversive power of humor. They may react with a rage that is stoked by the intentional insult to a sacred value, the deflation of their dignity, and a realization that laughter indicates common knowledge of both. The lethal riots in 2005 provoked by the editorial cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (for example, one showing Muhammad in heaven greeting newly arrived suicide bombers with 'Stop, we have run out of virgins!') show that when it comes to the deliberate undermining of a sacred relational model, humor is no laughing matter. (pp. 633-634)
”
”
Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined)
“
As I’ve told you many times, I’m split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life and, above all, my ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. By that I mean not finding anything wrong with flirtations, a kiss, an embrace, an off-color joke. This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper and finer. No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that everyone’s had enough of me to last a month. Actually, I’m what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker—a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten: not bad, but not particularly good either. I hate having to tell you this, but why shouldn’t I admit it when I know it’s true? My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne—to beat her down, hide her. But it doesn’t work, and I know why. I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the “lighthearted” Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the “deeper” Anne is too weak. If I force the good Anne into the spotlight for even fifteen minutes, she shuts up like a clam the moment she’s called upon to speak, and lets Anne number one do the talking. Before I realize it, she’s disappeared. So the nice Anne is never seen in company. She’s never made a single appearance, though she almost always takes the stage when I’m alone. I know exactly how I’d like to be, how I am … on the inside. But unfortunately I’m only like that with myself. And perhaps that’s why—no, I’m sure that’s the reason why—I think of myself as happy on the inside and other people think I’m happy on the outside. I’m guided by the pure Anne within, but on the outside I’m nothing but a frolicsome little goat tugging at its tether. As I’ve told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being boy-crazy as well as a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances. The happy-go-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she doesn’t give a darn. The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way. If I’m being completely honest, I’ll have to admit that it does matter to me, that I’m trying very hard to change myself, but that I’m always up against a more powerful enemy. A voice within me is sobbing, “You see, that’s what’s become of you. You’re surrounded by negative opinions, dismayed looks and mocking faces, people who dislike you, and all because you don’t listen to the advice of your own better half.” Believe me, I’d like to listen, but it doesn’t work, because if I’m quiet and serious, everyone thinks I’m putting on a new act and I have to save myself with a joke, and then I’m not even talking about my own family, who assume I must be sick, stuff me with aspirins and sedatives, feel my neck and forehead to see if I have a temperature, ask about my bowel movements and berate me for being in a bad mood, until I just can’t keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if … if only there were no other people in the world. Yours, Anne M. Frank ANNE’S DIARY ENDS HERE.
”
”
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
“
Our intelligence is based on the animals’ intelligences. So what is animal intelligence based on? How smart do animals have to be?” “Smart enough to identify threat or prey in time to act.” “Yes, exactly!” I say. “But how long is that time? How long does an animal have to react? How long will the threat or prey take to kill the animal or escape? I think it’s based on gravity.” “Gravity, question?” He sets the device down entirely. I’ve got his undivided attention. “Yeah! Think about it. Gravity is what determines how fast an animal can run. Higher gravity, more time spent in contact with the ground. Faster movement. I think animal intelligence, ultimately, has to be faster than gravity.
”
”
Andy Weir (Project Hail Mary)
“
we’re going to react the way we react to things that happen to us—but that doesn’t mean we have to surrender to our instincts and give up the hope that we can think and behave more rationally and humanely. There’s a reason why we no longer take pleasure throwing live cats into open fires, as both kings and peasants once did. Our culture has trained us to think this is abhorrent. That’s promising.
”
”
Rick Shenkman (Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics)
“
Affect detection. First, a person must detect a change in the emotional disposition of someone else. In the behavioral sciences, “affect” means the external expression of an emotion or mood, generally associated with an idea or an action. Kids who are autistic usually don’t get to this step; as a result, they rarely behave with empathy. • Imaginative transposition. Once a person detects an emotional change, he transposes what he observes onto his own psychological interiors. He “tries on” the perceived feelings as if they were clothes, then observes how he would react given similar circumstances. For those of you in the theater, this is the heart of Stanislavski’s Method Acting. For those of you about to have children, you have just begun to learn how to have a fair fight with them, not to mention your spouse. • Boundary formation. The person who is empathizing realizes at all times that the emotion is happening to the other person, never to the observer. Empathy is powerful, but it is also has boundaries.
”
”
John Medina (Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five)
“
As a society we certainly equate speed with smarts. Think fast. Are you quick-witted? A quick study? A whiz kid? Even Merriam-Webster bluntly informs us that slowness is “the quality of lacking intelligence or quickness of mind.” But we also recognize something counter-intuitive about accepting full-stop that people who react faster are smarter. That’s why, even though athletic training improves reaction time, we wouldn’t scout for the next Einstein at a basketball game. Intelligence probably has a lot to do with making fast connections, but it surely has just as much to do with making the right connections.
”
”
Anonymous
“
8 Ways to Shine a Positive Light on Others
1. Let the other person appear smart. The person who desperately tries to be the smartest person in the room inevitably comes off as the least.
2. Don’t bring attention to anything which may embarrass another person. Whether your conversation partner has poor grammar, a pimple on his chin, or lacks social grace, a discreet person does not say or do anything which would make another feel ashamed, embarrassed, or humiliated. Allow the other person to maintain his own grace and dignity.
3. Ask their opinions, seek their advice, ask them inquiring questions. By allowing them to reveal their opinions and knowledge, you will demonstrate respect and make them feel important.
4. Practice patience. Sometimes it takes a person a moment to gather her thoughts, process information, or respond appropriately. Your patience is respectful and appreciated.
5. Maintain your calm. Rather than react with anger or defensiveness, regulate your response and shift the energy into a more positive direction.
6. Put your ego aside. Allow another to triumph and enjoy the spotlight.
7. Be aware and concerned for the feelings of others.
8. Purposely seek ways to put others at ease and make them feel comfortable.
”
”
Susan C. Young (The Art of Connection: 8 Ways to Enrich Rapport & Kinship for Positive Impact (The Art of First Impressions for Positive Impact, #6))
“
However, he added, there is one big difference: "Our particles in economics are smart, whereas yours in physics are dumb." In physics, an elementary particle has no past, no experience, no goals, no hopes or fears about the future. It just is. That's why physicists can talk so freely about "universal laws": their particles respond to forces blindly, with absolute obedience. But in economics, said Arthur, "Our particles have to think ahead, and try to figure out how other particles might react if they were to undertake certain actions. Our particles have to act on the basis of expectations and strategies. And regardless of how you model that, that's what makes economics truly difficult.
”
”
M. Mitchell Waldrop (Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos)
“
New Rule: Democrats must get in touch with their inner asshole. I refer to the case of Van Jones, the man the Obama administration hired to find jobs for Americans in the new green industries. Seems like a smart thing to do in a recession, but Van Jones got fired because he got caught on tape saying Republicans are assholes. And they call it news!
Now, I know I'm supposed to be all reinjected with yes-we-can-fever after the big health-care speech, and it was a great speech--when Black Elvis gets jiggy with his teleprompter, there is none better. But here's the thing: Muhammad Ali also had a way with words, but it helped enormously that he could also punch guys in the face.
It bothers me that Obama didn't say a word in defense of Jones and basically fired him when Glenn Beck told him to. Just like dropped "end-of-life counseling" from health-care reform because Sarah Palin said it meant "death panels" on her Facebook page. Crazy morons make up things for Obama to do, and he does it.
Same thing with the speech to schools this week, where the president attempted merely to tell children to work hard and wash their hands, and Cracker Nation reacted as if he was trying to hire the Black Panthers to hand out grenades in homeroom. Of course, the White House immediately capitulated. "No students will be forced to view the speech" a White House spokesperson assured a panicked nation. Isn't that like admitting that the president might be doing something unseemly? What a bunch of cowards. If the White House had any balls, they'd say, "He's giving a speech on the importance of staying in school, and if you jackasses don't show it to every damn kid, we're cutting off your federal education funding tomorrow."
The Democrats just never learn: Americans don't really care which side of an issue you're on as long as you don't act like pussies When Van Jones called the Republicans assholes, he was paying them a compliment. He was talking about how they can get things done even when they're in the minority, as opposed to the Democrats , who can't seem to get anything done even when they control both houses of Congress, the presidency, and Bruce Springsteen.
I love Obama's civility, his desire to work with his enemies; it's positively Christlike. In college, he was probably the guy at the dorm parties who made sure the stoners shared their pot with the jocks. But we don't need that guy now. We need an asshole.
Mr. President, there are some people who are never going to like you. That's why they voted for the old guy and Carrie's mom. You're not going to win them over. Stand up for the seventy percent of Americans who aren't crazy.
And speaking of that seventy percent, when are we going to actually show up in all this? Tomorrow Glenn Beck's army of zombie retirees descending on Washington. It's the Million Moron March, although they won't get a million, of course, because many will be confused and drive to Washington state--but they will make news. Because people who take to the streets always do. They're at the town hall screaming at the congressman; we're on the couch screaming at the TV. Especially in this age of Twitters and blogs and Snuggies, it's a statement to just leave the house. But leave the house we must, because this is our last best shot for a long time to get the sort of serious health-care reform that would make the United States the envy of several African nations.
”
”
Bill Maher (The New New Rules: A Funny Look At How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass)
“
In 1970, psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley created an experiment in which they would drop pencils or coins. Sometimes they would be in a group, sometimes with one other person. They did this six thousand times. The results? They got help 20 percent of the time in a group, 40 percent of the time with one other person. They decided to up the stakes, and in their next experiment they had someone fill out a questionnaire. After a few minutes, smoke would start to fill the room, billowing in from a wall vent. They ran two versions of the experiment. In one, the person was alone; in the other, two other people were also filling out the questionnaire. When alone, people took about five seconds to get up and freak out. Within groups people took an average of 20 seconds to notice. When alone, the subject would go inspect the smoke and then leave the room to tell the experimenter he or she thought something was wrong. When in a group, people just sat there looking at one another until the smoke was so thick they couldn’t see the questionnaire. Only three people in eight runs of the group experiment left the room, and they took an average of six minutes to get up. The findings suggest the fear of embarrassment plays into group dynamics. You see the smoke, but you don’t want to look like a fool, so you glance over at the other person to see what they are doing. The other person is thinking the same thing. Neither of you react, so neither of you becomes alarmed. The third person sees two people acting like everything is OK, so that third person is even less likely to freak out. Everyone is influencing every other person’s perception of reality thanks to another behavior called the illusion of transparency. You tend to think other people can tell what you are thinking and feeling just by looking at you. You think the other people can tell you are really worried about the smoke, but they can’t. They think the same thing. No one freaks out. This leads to pluralistic ignorance—a situation where everyone is thinking the same thing but believes he or she is the only person who thinks it. After the smoke-filled room experiment, all the participants reported they were freaking out on the inside, but since no one else seemed alarmed, they assumed it must just be their own anxiety.
”
”
David McRaney (You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself)
“
You repay the debt,” he said. “That should be more than enough."
“What if I disagree? And what if, after all your trouble, I still say no?”
“I have ways to insist.”
“I have ways to decline.”
“You’ll pay one way or the other,” he said.
“In euros? Dollars? How much do I owe you?”
If he registered the sarcasm, he didn’t react to it. “You pay in the only currency that holds value to you,” he said. “You pay in innocent life.”
The words stung like a hard smack across the face and her eyes smarted as if she’d been physically struck. He should not know these things.
Casual indifference remained plastered on her face while deep below, in that hollow crevice where madness had lain dormant these last nine months, the slow, steady percussion of war tapped out, faint but perceptible.
“Which innocents?” she said.
He waved his hand with that dismissive gesture. “Innocents are innocents,” he said.
“Is one life really valued higher than another?”
From the fear bubbling to the surface, she instinctively knew. Knew that the only way a man in his position could gloat as if he owned her was if he held what she deemed most priceless.
”
”
Taylor Stevens
“
Galveston?” he asked in that amazing voice, still surprising me by keeping our conversation going.
“Yeah. Staying at a beach house and everything. Totally slumming it and having a miserable time, you know?” I gave him a real smile that time.
Rip just raised his brows.
“I promised her I would go visit, and she promised she would come up too... What’s that face for?” I surprised myself by laughing. “I don’t believe it either. I’ll get lucky if she comes once. I’m not that delusional.”
I didn’t imagine the way his cheek twitched again, just a little, just enough to keep the smile on my face.
“I’m stuck making my own lunches from now on. I have nobody to watch scary movies with who’s more dramatic than I am screaming at the scary parts. And my house is empty,” I told him, going on a roll.
“Your lunches?” was what he picked up on.
I wasn’t sure how much he’d had to drink that he was asking me so many questions, but I wasn’t going to complain. “I can’t cook to save my life, boss. I thought everyone knew. Baking is the only thing I can handle.”
“You serious?” he asked in a surprised tone.
I nodded.
“For real?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I can’t even make rice in an Instant Pot. It’s either way too dry or it’s mush.” Oh. “An Instant Pot is—”
“I know what it is,” he cut me off.
It was my turn to make a face, but mine was an impressed one. He knew what an Instant Pot was but not a rom-com. Okay. “Sorry.”
He didn’t react to me trying to tease him, instead he asked, “You can’t even make rice in that?”
“Nope.”
“You know there’s instructions online.”
Was he messing with me now? I couldn’t help but watch him a little. How much had he drunk already? “Yeah, I know.”
“And you still screw it up?”
I blinked, soaking up Chatty Cathy over here like a plant that hadn’t seen the sun in too long. “I wouldn’t say I screw it up. It’s more like… you either need to chew a little more or a little less.”
It was his turn to blink.
“It’s a surprise. I like to keep people on their toes.”
If I hadn’t been guessing that he’d had a couple drinks before, what he did next would have confirmed it.
His left cheek twitched. Then his right one did too, and in the single blink of an eye, Lucas Ripley was smiling at me.
Straight white teeth. That not-thin but not-full mouth dark pink and pulled up at the edges. He even had a dimple.
Rip had a freaking dimple.
And I wanted to touch it to make sure it was real.
I couldn’t help but think it was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen, even though I had zero business thinking anything along those lines. But I was smart enough to know that I couldn’t say a single word to mention it; otherwise, it might never come out again.
What I did trust myself to do was gulp down half of my Sprite before saying, “You can make rice, I’m guessing?” If he wanted to talk, we could talk. I was good at talking.
“Uh-huh,” he replied, sounding almost cocky about it.
All I could get myself to do in response was grin at him, and for another five seconds, his dimple—and his smile—responded to me.
”
”
Mariana Zapata (Luna and the Lie)
“
As I’ve told you many times, I’m split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life and, above all, my ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. By that I mean not finding anything wrong with flirtations, a kiss, an embrace, an off-color joke. This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper and finer. No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that everyone’s had enough of me to last a month. Actually, I’m what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker—a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten: not bad, but not particularly good either. I hate having to tell you this, but why shouldn’t I admit it when I know it’s true? My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne—to beat her down, hide her. But it doesn’t work, and I know why. I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the “lighthearted” Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the “deeper” Anne is too weak. If I force the good Anne into the spotlight for even fifteen minutes, she shuts up like a clam the moment she’s called upon to speak, and lets Anne number one do the talking. Before I realize it, she’s disappeared. So the nice Anne is never seen in company. She’s never made a single appearance, though she almost always takes the stage when I’m alone. I know exactly how I’d like to be, how I am … on the inside. But unfortunately I’m only like that with myself. And perhaps that’s why—no, I’m sure that’s the reason why—I think of myself as happy on the inside and other people think I’m happy on the outside. I’m guided by the pure Anne within, but on the outside I’m nothing but a frolicsome little goat tugging at its tether. As I’ve told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being boy-crazy as well as a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances. The happy-go-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she doesn’t give a darn. The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way. If I’m being completely honest, I’ll have to admit that it does matter to me, that I’m trying very hard to change myself, but that I’m always up against a more powerful enemy. A voice within me is sobbing, “You see, that’s what’s become of you. You’re surrounded by negative opinions, dismayed looks and mocking faces, people who dislike you, and all because you don’t listen to the advice of your own better half.” Believe me, I’d like to listen, but it doesn’t work, because if I’m quiet and serious, everyone thinks I’m putting on a new act and I have to save myself with a joke, and then I’m not even talking about my own family, who assume I must be sick, stuff me with aspirins and sedatives, feel my neck and forehead to see if I have a temperature, ask about my bowel movements and berate me for being in a bad mood, until I just can’t keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if … if only there were no other people in the world.
”
”
Anne Frank (The Diary Of a Young Girl)
“
Trying to trick the creature, hoping that it would react without hesitation to the first sign of movement in the door way, Travis tucked the revolver under his belt, quietly picked up one of the dining-room chairs, eased to within six feet of the kitchen, and pitched the chair through the open door. He snatched the revolver out of his waistband and, as the chair sailed into the kitchen, assumed a shooter's stance. The chair crashed into the Formica-topped table, clattered to the floor, and banged against the dishwasher.
The lantern-eyed enemy did not go for it. Nothing moved. When the chair finished tumbling, the kitchen was again marked by a hushed expectancy .
Einstein was making a curious sound, a quiet shuddery huffing, and after a moment Travis realized the noise was a result of the dog's uncontrollable shivering.
No question about it: the intruder in the kitchen was the very thing that had pursued them through the woods more than three months ago. During the intervening weeks, it had made its way north, probably traveling mostly in the wildlands to the east of the developed part of the state, relentlessly tracking the dog by some means that Travis could not understand and for reasons he could not even guess.
In response to the chair he had thrown, a large white-enameled canister crashed to the floor just beyond the kitchen doorway, and Travis jumped back in surprise, squeezing off a wild shot before he realized he was only being taunted. The lid flew off the container when it hit the floor, and flour spilled across the tile.
Silence again.
By responding to Travis's taunt with one of its own, the intruder had displayed unnerving intelligence. Abruptly Travis realized that, coming from the same research lab as Einstein and being a product of related experiments, the creature might be as smart as the retriever. Which would explain Einstein's fear of it. If Travis had not already accommodated himself to the idea of a dog with humanlike intelligence, he might have been unable to credit this beast with more than mere animal cleverness; however, events of the past few months had primed him to accept-and quickly adapt to-almost anything.
”
”
Dean Koontz (Watchers)
“
Along with John and Judi, we took a big risk and started filming on the movie before we had a contract signed with MGM. There didn’t seem to be any choice. I imagined all the insurance underwriters across the world reacting to the phrase “live crocodiles.” Those two words would be enough to blow them right out of their cubicles. So we began shooting with our zoo crocodiles, but without signatures on the dotted line for the movie.
A particular scene in the script--and a good example of an insurance man’s nightmare--had a crocodile trying to lunge into a boat. Only Steve’s expertise could make this happen, since the action called for Steve and me to be in the boat at the time. If the lunging crocodile happened to hook his head over the edge of the boat, he would tip us both into the water. That would be a one-way trip.
“How are you going to work it?” I asked Steve.
“Get the crocs accustomed to the dinghy first,” he said. “Then I’ll see if I can get them interacting with me while I’m in the boat.”
First he tried Agro, one of our biggest male crocs. Agro was too wary of the boat. He’s a smart crocodile. I think he remembered back when he was captured. He didn’t want any of it. We decided to try with our friend Charlie.
Charlie had been very close to ending up at a farm, his skin turned into boots, bags, and belts. He definitely had attitude. He spent a lot of his time trying to kill everything within range. Steve felt good about the possibility of Charlie having a go.
Because he was filming a movie and not shooting a documentary, John had a more complex setup than usual, utilizing three thirty-five-millimeter cameras. Each one would film in staggered succession, so that the film magazine changes would never happen all at once. There would never be a time when film was not rolling. We couldn’t very well ask a crocodile to wait while a fresh mag was loaded into a camera.
“You need to be careful to stay out of Charlie’s line of sight,” Steve said to me. “I want Charlie focusing only on me. If he changes focus and starts attacking you, it’s going to be too difficult for me to control the situation.”
Right. Steve got no argument from me. Getting anywhere near those bone-crushing jaws was the furthest thing from my mind. I wasn’t keen on being down on the water with a huge saltwater crocodile trying to get me. I would have to totally rely on Steve to keep me safe.
”
”
Terri Irwin (Steve & Me)
“
I’d told myself I didn’t have a type. I’d pretended my body didn’t react to guys like Warren—smart-mouthed, sardonic, and bratty in bed until I took control.
”
”
Megan Erickson (Mature Content (Cyberlove, #4))
“
The tendency to react more rapidly and to a greater degree when considering information you are familiar with is called the availability heuristic.
”
”
David McRaney (You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself)
“
When you encounter detractors, you might react with fear. What keeps smart, imaginative people from pursuing their potentially impactful ideas? Lack of time and resources? When I informally polled our community, they told me about their fears. Fear shuts people down—regardless of their profession or station in life—from achieving their potential, especially if they haven’t worked out their devotion muscle enough and learned to manage uncertainty. Fear crops up when you start to believe other people’s opinions of you more than you believe in your genius and the potential impact of your own ideas.
”
”
Jeffrey Davis (Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed with Productivity)
“
Trump isn’t smart enough for such plotting. He’s just a bloviating asshole who shouts in public what he wants and people react to it. The Russians took him up on his offer.
”
”
Michael Cohen (Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics)
“
You’re reacting to things that haven’t happened and behaving as though they have, or are inevitable. Focus on what is actually happening, here and now.” “Surrender to reality,” he said with a small grin and, grabbing a tissue, he rubbed his eyes. It was one of Hardye Moel’s favorite sayings. “Yes. Stop fighting battles that don’t exist. Focus on what does. And don’t take it all on yourself. You have a smart, effective team around you.
”
”
Louise Penny (A World of Curiosities (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #18))
“
Parents face many issues on a daily basis in the raising of kids, but not all of them affect how their children turn out. There is one that does. How you deal with the emotional lives of your children—your ability to detect, react to, promote, and provide instruction about emotional regulation—has the greatest predictive power over your baby’s future happiness.
”
”
John Medina (Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five)
“
But now, after the news of Barthelme’s death, this simple fact of presence or absence, which I had begun to recognize in a small way already, now became the single most important supplemental piece of information I felt I could know about a writer: more important than his age when he wrote a particular work, or his nationality, his sex (forgive the pronoun), political leanings, even whether he did or did not have, in someone’s opinion, any talent. Is he alive or dead? — just tell me that. The intellectual surface we offer to the dead has undergone a subtle change of texture and chemistry; a thousand particulars of delight and fellow-feeling and forbearance begin reformulating themselves the moment they cross the bar. The living are always potentially thinking about and doing just what we are doing: being pulled through a touchless car wash, watching a pony chew a carrot, noticing that orange scaffolding has gone up around some prominent church. The conclusions they draw we know to be conclusions drawn from how things are now. Indeed, for me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world is a placebo. The dead can be helpful, needless to say, but we can only guess sloppily about how they would react to this emergent particle of time, which is all the time we have. And when we do guess, we are unfair to them. Even when, as with Barthelme, the dead have died unexpectedly and relatively young, we give them their moment of solemnity and then quickly begin patronizing them biographically, talking about how they “delighted in” x or “poked fun at” y — phrases that by their very singsong cuteness betray how alien and childlike the shades now are to us. Posthumously their motives become ludicrously simple, their delights primitive and unvarying: all their emotions wear stage makeup, and we almost never flip their books across the room out of impatience with something they’ve said. We can’t really understand them anymore. Readers of the living are always, whether they know it or not, to some degree seeing the work through the living writer’s own eyes; feeling for him when he flubs, folding into their reactions to his early work constant subauditional speculations as to whether the writer himself would at this moment wince or nod with approval at some passage in it. But the dead can’t suffer embarrassment by some admission or mistake they have made. We sense this imperviousness and adjust our sympathies accordingly.
Yet in other ways the dead gain by death. The level of autobiographical fidelity in their work is somehow less important, or, rather, extreme fidelity does not seem to harm, as it does with the living, our appreciation for the work. The living are “just” writing about their own lives; the dead are writing about their irretrievable lives, wow wow wow. Egotism, monomania, the delusional traits of Blake or Smart or that guy who painted the electrically schizophrenic cats are all engaging qualities in the dead.
”
”
Nicholson Baker (U and I)
“
They’re not just placement tests, dummy,” Flea said. “I heard if you fail you’ll get kicked out of society. If you score below a 5.0, then none of the city leaders are going to draft you and you’ll be left with nowhere to go. If you’re not smart enough to be useful to the collective, then you get the boot.” He gestured like he was holding an invisible ball in his hand, pretending to drop-kick it across the room. Then before there was time to react, he snatched
”
”
N.G. Simsion (Testing Zero (Remnants of Zone Four, #1))
“
Would-be investors can take courses in finance and accounting, read widely and, if they are fortunate, receive mentoring from someone with a deep understanding of the investment process. But only a few of them will achieve the superior insight, intuition, sense of value and awareness of psychology that are required for consistently above-average results. Doing so requires second-level thinking. Remember, your goal in investing isn’t to earn average returns; you want to do better than average. Thus, your thinking has to be better than that of others—both more powerful and at a higher level. Since other investors may be smart, well-informed and highly computerized, you must find an edge they don’t have. You must think of something they haven’t thought of, see things they miss or bring insight they don’t possess. You have to react differently and behave differently. In short, being right may be a necessary condition for investment success, but it won’t be sufficient.
”
”
Howard Marks (The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing))
“
Knowing how people are going to react given their current state of mind or recent experiences is critically important. Looking at ways to determine possible outcomes or reactions given current context (and emotional state) will help to deliver the message in the right way at this particular time. You can’t expect to get the emotional side of things correct all the time because of our irrational behavior and unexpected randomness. But, we can try to show some real empathy in our engineered solutions.
”
”
M. Pell (The Age of Smart Information: How Artificial Intelligence and Spatial Computing will transform the way we communicate forever)
“
Adults just cannot understand how someone with strong test scores could forget to bring a pencil to class. In my case, this lack of understanding led me to believe that my brain just did not work right and that I was personally defective. It’s critical that parents or adults working with children with ADHD or executive functioning issues understand the internal frustration of these children. The way we react is critical in preventing the development of some of these damaging beliefs.
”
”
Zac Grisham (Scattered to Focused: Smart Strategies to Improve Your Child's Executive Functioning Skills)
“
During the time I was writing the songs for the record that became Grown Backwards, there was love, anger, sadness, and frustration in my life. There were two wars: one begun out of revenge and the second seemingly to consolidate oil interests. Huge amounts of money were expended in what seemed to be obviously futile and counterproductive efforts that many felt would not only bring death to many innocent people, but would end up making us, as a nation, less admired and certainly less safe, both physically and economically, for the foreseeable future. Along with many others, I felt angry—alienated, even—and I did my best to stop the rush into the second conflict, but it was inevitable. It seemed like a misdirected legacy of a nation still stunned, hurt, reeling—a fighter ready to strike out at anything that could be accepted as an enemy. I blogged, and began a campaign that resulted in full-page ads in the New York Times and Rolling Stone urging restraint. You can see an example of one of those ads on the next page.K But it was hopeless. Recent studies have shown that people ignore facts that contradict what they want to believe. Even “smart” people I knew, and many others I respected, were convincing themselves we had to invade. It made me feel like I didn’t know my country and its people, or even my own friends, anymore. How does one react and respond to that? I felt lost and adrift in my home. What kind of music would emerge from living with those feelings? These were not simply abstract political ideas. I felt angry and fucked up every day.
”
”
David Byrne (How Music Works)
“
Strategic thinking/visioning. Able to see and communicate the big picture in an inspiring way. Determines opportunities and threats through comprehensive analysis of current and future trends. • Creativity/innovation. Generates new and innovative approaches to problems. • Enthusiasm. Exhibits passion and excitement over work. Has a can-do attitude. • Work ethic. Possesses a strong willingness to work hard and sometimes long hours to get the job done. Has a track record of working hard. • High standards. Expects personal performance and team performance to be nothing short of the best. • Listening skills. Lets others speak and seeks to understand their viewpoints. • Openness to criticism and ideas. Often solicits feedback and reacts calmly to criticism or negative feedback. • Communication. Speaks and writes clearly and articulately without being overly verbose or talkative. Maintains this standard in all forms of written communication, including e-mail.
”
”
Geoff Smart (Who: The A Method for Hiring)
“
If you react strongly to people who behave in certain ways or say certain things, your reaction says more about you than about those to whom you’re reacting. In fact, about 90 percent of any exaggerated reaction is about yourself
”
”
Joe Kort (10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do To Improve Their Lives)
“
Getting clear about what really matters is almost impossible when one’s energy is dissipated in reacting to one’s partner. It wasn’t that Harry and Augusta weren’t creative or smart enough to think through these questions. But they were both so locked into unproductive patterns that they didn’t give themselves a chance to even ask these questions, let alone answer them.
”
”
Harriet Lerner (The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You're Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted, Betrayed, or Desperate)
“
The Danger Zone! Parked cars hide not only entering vehicles, but also people who walk out to get to the driver’s side. And the door of a parked vehicle can open up to 4 feet into the lane. If you ride just beyond the reach of the door, you are still at risk of being startled and swerving if it opens suddenly.
The Danger Zone: 1) Strike zone. 2) Startle zone. 3) Unusable road width. Sure, many people—even some bicycling “experts”—will tell you, “Always keep as far to the right as possible,” and, “Look out for opening car doors.” But at speeds above walking, you can’t react in time to avoid a car door. And you can’t see inside many cars to know whether a person is inside. If a door opens in front of you, you will hit the door unless you swerve out into the street—maybe into the path of a passing car. So to avoid being struck or startled, the end of your handlebar should be 5 feet or more from parked cars. Hold your line. Don’t weave in and out between parked cars. Don’t weave in and out between parked cars. If you weave into the parking lane, a parked car will hide you from drivers approaching from behind. Then you have to pop back into the path of overtaking traffic when you reach the next parked car. Put yourself in the place of a driver a couple of hundred feet behind you. Are you constantly visible and predictable? Motorists don’t mind slowing down for a predictable, visible bicyclist nearly as much as they mind a bicyclist who swerves out in front of them.
”
”
John Allen (Bicycling Street Smarts CyclingSavvy Edition: Updated edition with ebike chapter.)
“
While parents like Cyndi Paul find it heartbreaking to start imposing discipline, children react well when reprimands are delivered briefly, calmly, and consistently, according to Susan O’Leary, a psychologist who has spent long hours observing toddlers and parents. When parents are inconsistent, when they let an infraction slide, they sometimes try to compensate with an extra-strict punishment for the next one. This requires less self-control on the parents’ part: They can be nice when they feel like it, and then punish severely if they’re feeling angry or the misbehavior is egregious. But imagine how this looks from the child’s point of view. Some days you make a smart remark and the grown-ups all laugh. Other days a similar remark brings a smack or the loss of treasured privileges. Seemingly tiny or even random differences in your own behavior or in the situation seem to spell the difference between no punishment at all and a highly upsetting one. Besides resenting the unfairness, you learn that the most important thing is not how you behave but whether or not you get caught, and whether your parents are in the mood to punish. You might learn, for instance, that table manners can be dispensed with at restaurants, because the grown-ups are too embarrassed to discipline you in public. “Parents find it hard to administer discipline in public because they feel judged,” Carroll says. “They’re afraid people will think they’re a bad mother. But you have to get that out of your head. I’ve had people stare at me when I take a child out of a restaurant for being rude, but you can’t worry about that. You have to do what’s right for the child, and it really is all about being consistent. They have to grow up knowing what’s appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
”
”
Roy F. Baumeister (Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength)
“
Dave Robertson, one of Kelly’s original recruits and aerospace’s most intuitively smart hydraulic specialist, ridiculed our design by calling it “a flying engagement ring.” Dave seldom minced words; he kept a fourteen-inch blowgun he had fashioned out of a jet’s tailpipe on his desk and would fire clay pellets at the necks of any other designers in the big drafting room who got on his nerves. Robertson hated having anyone look over his shoulder at his drawing and reacted by grabbing a culprit’s tie and cutting it off with scissors. Another opponent was Ed Martin, who thought that anyone who hadn’t been building airplanes since the propeller-driven days wasn’t worth talking to, much less listening to. He called the Hopeless Diamond “Rich’s Folly.” Some said that Ed’s bark was worse than his bite, but those were guys who didn’t know him.
”
”
Ben R. Rich (Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed)
“
Until that moment, I’d thought you were lost. I realized my Ash was somewhere under all the polish and politeness. After that day, I started watching you and enjoying the moments when I got a glimpse of the real you slipping out while no one else was paying attention. It’s why I said the things to you that I did. I wanted you to react to me. I wanted you to smart off at me. Those moments when you couldn’t take it anymore and snapped…I lived for those moments.”
“You were mean to me because you wanted me to smart off to you?” I asked.
He nodded, then bent down to kiss the tip of my nose.
“You really like my ugly side, don’t you, Beau?”
“Nothing about you is ugly. You’re just as beautiful inside as you are out, but you don’t see it. That’s what kills me. Sawyer’s my cousin and I’d do anything for him. But he’s insane for keeping you up on some damn pedestal. I want the real you. The one that likes shimmying out of a pair of shorts knowing you’re driving me wild. The one who runs through the woods to my truck smiling like nothing else matters.” He cupped my face with his hand. “The real Ashton Gray is perfect, and I’m crazy in love with her.” My gut clenched. I had feelings for Beau. We shared a history together and now we had this summer, but love wasn’t supposed to factor into the equation. There was Sawyer standing between us.
Beau’s lips found mine and everything else fell away. I didn’t care about all the worries and arguments in the back of my head. I just wanted to be me. In his arms I knew I could be.
”
”
Abbi Glines (The Vincent Boys (The Vincent Boys, #1))
“
Acting and reacting to the responses we received from our family, caregivers, and siblings, we began to play that role, for better or for worse. Our role as a child might have been “outgoing” or “fearful” or “smart.” The roles we play expand as we grow up, and we take on new roles as “mom” or “teacher” or “anxious.” These roles are integrated into our understanding of ourselves.
”
”
Nicole Unice (The Struggle Is Real: Getting Better at Life, Stronger in Faith, and Free from the Stuff Keeping You Stuck)
“
quality or qualities that would be necessary for business success in the twenty-first century. It finally concluded that the most important quality required for success would be "flexibility.” It would be the ability to rapidly react and respond to the accelerating rate of change in all areas. The development of this attitude of flexibility, accepting that "the answers have changed,” would give an individual or organization a tremendous advantage over more rigid and inflexible competitors.
”
”
Brian Tracy (Get Smart!)
“
FREDERICK
(taking Lee's head in
his hands and looking
at her)
Oh...Lee, you are my whole world.
(pausing)
Good God! Have you been kissed
tonight?!
LEE
(reacting, pushing
Frederick's hands
from her face)
No.
FREDERICK
(reacting)
Oh, yes, you have!
LEE
(quickly standing up,
defensively)
No.
FREDERICK
(raising his voice)
You've been with someone!
LEE
(overlapping, running
away from the bed)
Stop accusing me!
Lee runs into the kitchen, her hands tight around her chest.
FREDERICK
(offscreen)
I'm too smart, Lee! You can't fool
me! You're turning all red!
Lee, fraught with emotion, briefly puts her outstretched
hands on the refrigerator door, then turns around and leans
against it, hugging herself, her blouse still unbuttoned,
her hair still wet and bedraggled.
LEE
Leave me alone!
Frederick enters the kitchen area and leans against the
counter.
FREDERICK
(angrily)
Oh, Christ! What's wrong with you?!
LEE
(leaning against the
refrigerator, sighing)
I'm sorry.
FREDERICK
Oh, couldn't you say something?
You have to slither around behind my
back!
LEE
(overlapping, her
voice emotionally
raised)
I'm saying it now!
FREDERICK
So you met somebody else?
LEE
(sighing, nodding)
Yeah.
Frederick cringes, reacting. He puts his hand to his
forehead; he sighs.
LEE
(walking into the
bathroom)
But you, God, you knew that was going
to happen sooner or later. I can't
live like this!
FREDERICK
(turning to face Lee
in the bathroom, his
arms crossed)
Who is it?
LEE
(frantically putting
things in her purse,
glaring at Frederick)
What's the difference?! It's just
somebody I met!
FREDERICK
But who? Where did you meet him?
LEE
It doesn't make a difference! I
have to move out!
FREDERICK
You are, you are my only connection
to the world!
Lee turns and faces Frederick in the bathroom doorway.
LEE
(gesturing emotionally)
Oh, God, that's too much
responsibility for me. It's not
fair! I want a less complicated
life, Frederick. I want a husband,
maybe even a child before it's too
late.
FREDERICK
(reacting, his face
in his hand)
Jesus...Jesus!
LEE
(gesturing, moving
closer to Frederick)
Oh, God, I don't even know what I
want.
FREDERICK
(sighing heavily,
reacting)
Oh...
LEE
(rubbing Frederick's
shoulder tenderly)
Tch, oh, what do you get out of me,
anyway? I mean...
(laying her head
against his shoulder,
sighing deeply)
it's not sexual anymore. It's
certainly not intellectual. I mean,
you're so superior to me in every
way that--
Frederick furiously shakes Lee away. He pounds his fist
against a cupboard. Lee, gasping, moves away.
FREDERICK
Please, don't patronize me!
He puts his hand on his forehead, then turns to the offscreen
Lee.
”
”
Woody Allen (Hannah and Her Sisters)
“
Your meta-emotion philosophy turns out to be very important to your children’s future. It predicts how you will react to their emotional lives, which in turn predicts how (or if) they learn to regulate their own emotions. Because these skills are directly related to a child’s social competency, how you feel about feelings can profoundly influence your child’s future happiness. You have to be comfortable with your emotions in order to make your kids comfortable with theirs.
”
”
John Medina (Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five)
“
Whenever anyone reported to her that I was smart, or a good student, she reacted skeptically. They’re setting you up, she said to me once, frowning. Gee, and all the O’Briens, took pride in doing only what was practical. A life of the mind—even a profession like teaching—seemed to most of them prideful in some way. Work was done with your body, with your hands. College was for dreamers and snobs.
”
”
Liz Moore (Long Bright River)
“
My rich dad just played the game smart, and he did it through corporations—the biggest secret of the rich.” “The reality is that the rich are not taxed. It’s the middle class who pays for the poor, especially the educated upper-income middle class.” “Every time people try to punish the rich, the rich don’t simply comply. They react. They have the money, power, and intent to change things. They don’t just sit there and voluntarily pay more taxes.” “If you work for money, you give the power to your employer. If money works for you, you keep the power and control it.” “A person who understands the tax advantages and protections provided by a corporation can get rich so much faster than someone who is an employee or a small-business sole proprietor. It’s like the difference between someone walking and someone flying.” “Employees earn and get taxed, and they try to live on what is left. A corporation earns, spends everything it can, and is taxed on anything that is left. It’s one of the biggest legal tax loopholes that the rich use.
”
”
Robert T. Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!)
“
Why You Should Hire Dedicated Next.js Developers for Your Next Project
In today’s fast-paced tech world, businesses are constantly looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve. One of the most effective ways to build high-performance web applications is by leveraging cutting-edge technologies. If you're aiming to create scalable, dynamic, and efficient websites or applications, Next.js is a powerful framework you can't afford to overlook. But how do you make sure that your Next.js project is developed by professionals who can deliver top-notch results? The answer is simple—hire dedicated Next.js developers.
Next.js is a popular React-based framework for building fast, SEO-friendly web applications. It allows server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG), ensuring that your web pages load quickly, are search engine optimized, and offer a seamless user experience. Whether you’re building a simple landing page or a complex enterprise-level application, Next.js ensures that your website performs at its best.
The framework is built for flexibility and ease of use, making it a favorite among developers for creating highly interactive and performant web applications. However, to fully tap into the potential of Next.js, you need developers who understand both the technical nuances of the framework and how it integrates with other technologies.
Why Hire Dedicated Next.js Developers?
Hiring dedicated Next.js developers can give your business several advantages:
1. Expertise and Experience: Dedicated developers specialize in Next.js and will bring years of experience to your project. With their in-depth knowledge, they can help you avoid common pitfalls and make smart decisions to ensure the success of your web app.
2. Customization and Flexibility: Dedicated developers are flexible enough to work on projects of any scale. Whether you are looking for an eCommerce platform, a content management system, or a complex enterprise application, dedicated Next.js developers can provide custom solutions tailored to your needs.
3. Focus on Your Core Business: By outsourcing your development needs to dedicated Next.js developers, you can focus on other important aspects of your business, knowing that your web application is in the hands of skilled professionals.
4. Faster Time to Market : With a team of dedicated Next.js developers, your project can be completed faster, enabling you to launch your web application quickly and stay ahead of your competitors.
TypeScript Development Services: A Perfect Complement to Next.js
When developing with Next.js,TypeScript is an excellent tool to enhance the robustness of your application.TypeScript development services offer benefits like type safety, improved error handling, and better maintainability, which is especially useful when working on large-scale applications. By combining Next.js with TypeScript, you can ensure your project has strong typing, reducing runtime errors and improving the overall stability of your web app.
When you hire dedicated Next.js developers, you can also request that they implement TypeScript to improve the reliability of your project. Their expertise in both technologies will allow them to deliver solutions that are not only scalable but also error-free.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive digital landscape, having a high-performance web application can set your business apart. Hiring dedicated Next.js developers ensures that your project will be handled by experts who can bring your ideas to life while also optimizing for speed, performance, and scalability. Pair this with TypeScript development services for added security and error prevention, and you have the perfect recipe for a robust web application.
If you're looking to streamline your development process and get the best talent at a reasonable price, consider choosing to hire remote developers in India.
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Brain Inventory
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What is Next.js and Why Should You Use It?
Next.js is a popular React-based framework for building fast, SEO-friendly web applications. It allows server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG), ensuring that your web pages load quickly, are search engine optimized, and offer a seamless user experience. Whether you’re building a simple landing page or a complex enterprise-level application, Next.js ensures that your website performs at its best.
The framework is built for flexibility and ease of use, making it a favorite among developers for creating highly interactive and performant web applications. However, to fully tap into the potential of Next.js, you need developers who understand both the technical nuances of the framework and how it integrates with other technologies.
Why Hire Dedicated Next.js Developers?
Hiring dedicated Next.js developers can give your business several advantages:
1. Expertise and Experience: Dedicated developers specialize in Next.js and will bring years of experience to your project. With their in-depth knowledge, they can help you avoid common pitfalls and make smart decisions to ensure the success of your web app.
2. Customization and Flexibility: Dedicated developers are flexible enough to work on projects of any scale. Whether you are looking for an eCommerce platform, a content management system, or a complex enterprise application, dedicated Next.js developers can provide custom solutions tailored to your needs.
3. Focus on Your Core Business: By outsourcing your development needs to dedicated Next.js developers, you can focus on other important aspects of your business, knowing that your web application is in the hands of skilled professionals.
4. Faster Time to Market : With a team of dedicated Next.js developers, your project can be completed faster, enabling you to launch your web application quickly and stay ahead of your competitors.
TypeScript Development Services: A Perfect Complement to Next.js
When developing with Next.js,TypeScript is an excellent tool to enhance the robustness of your application.TypeScript development services offer benefits like type safety, improved error handling, and better maintainability, which is especially useful when working on large-scale applications. By combining Next.js with TypeScript, you can ensure your project has strong typing, reducing runtime errors and improving the overall stability of your web app.
When you hire dedicated Next.js developers, you can also request that they implement TypeScript to improve the reliability of your project. Their expertise in both technologies will allow them to deliver solutions that are not only scalable but also error-free.
Hire Remote Developers in India: A Cost-Effective Solution
In the era of remote work, you can hire dedicated Next.js developers from anywhere in the world. One of the most cost-effective options is to hire remote developers in India. India is home to a large pool of highly skilled tech professionals with expertise in Next.js, TypeScript, and many other modern technologies. By outsourcing to India, you can access top talent without breaking the bank, making it an ideal solution for startups and businesses looking to optimize costs while still delivering high-quality products.
Remote developers in India offer the advantage of working in different time zones, allowing for faster turnaround times and 24/7 support. Furthermore, the cultural and linguistic alignment with Western businesses means there’s no barrier in communication, ensuring smooth collaboration on every project.
Hire Chatbot Developers to Enhance User Experience
Incorporating a chatbot into your web application can greatly improve the user experience. Chatbots allow for instant communication with users, providing support and assistance without the need for human intervention.
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Brain Inventory