Meetings are like sex

"Meetings are like sex. Everybody thinks that they are good at it… until they ask for the truth. We never have real discussions about it: I did not want to say anything… but you know this meeting thing? You are not very good at it.

Meetings are like sex in the sense that they make most people happier about processes and decisions. However, it can also distract from real work.

Meetings are also like sex in the sense that ideas might cross-pollinate and give rise to new ideas. But this cannot happen unless all partners are ready. And that is the main problem with most meetings: people fail to prepare them."

Source: http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2013/06/12/meetings-are-like-sex/

Typography and theology

"Both great typographers and also great theologians strive to make their work an "invisible art." They facilitate a process by which ideas are conveyed (in the case of typography) from one person to another or (in the case of theology) from God to his creations, without causing a distraction or drawing attention to themselves."

Lots more goodness from here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/06/07/creative-orthodoxy/?comments#comments

“Social Network” is smart, lively, well-acted and -- this is key --  raises questions and issues that are both timeless and totally of the moment.

Oh, sure, you probably spent time palavering after seeing “Inception” this summer, but that was trying to figure out just what the hell actually happened. How many dream levels were there again? And why were they mucking around in all that snow near the end?

In a way, “Social Network” seems almost a throwback to the great movies of the late 1960s and ‘70s. It taps into the zeitgeist. It’s about what’s happening now. Right now. And it has a viewpoint -- well, actually, a bunch of them.

In the same way that “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Godfather” were all provocative films, so is “Social Network.” Like those earlier movies (but without the torrent of bullets and actual blood), it raises questions about who’s good, what’s right and the definition of success in America.

Source: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/social-network-truth-justice-american-way-and-oh-yeah-mark-zuckerberg-21186

[Federer's] an old man in tennis years. Especially since he's never injured and always played. Getting bounced in the quarters is supposed to be some sort of embarrassment now? No one else is close to sniffing 36 straight quarter.

This is like writing an article about how sad LeBron is if he's averaging 15 ppg when he's 42 years old.

Source: comment on http://deadspin.com/roger-federer-booted-from-the-french-open-in-straight-s-511224222

Comaring python to Java is like comparing a bicyle to a car. Sure, it’s easier to learn to ride and you don’t need to struggle with the licencse, but as soon as you want to go more than 10 miles (“write an enterprise application”), the only choice of the two is the car.

from: http://pythonconquerstheuniverse.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/python-java-a-side-by-side-comparison/

Chicken incubator in zoo to infant incubator

"The infant mortality rate in the 19th century was unimaginably high. One out of five newborn babies died in the first couple of months. Stephane Tarnier, a Parisian obstetrician, was acutely aware of this problem. During one of his visits to a local Zoo, he attended an exhibit of chicken incubators and noticed how hatchlings were put in the warm inclosure. Tarnier was able to connect the chicken incubator with temperature regulation for newborn babies. He ordered a special “baby-warming” device which was responsible for reducing the infant mortality rate by 28%."

Source: http://innovatobase.wordpress.com/category/stephane-tarnier/

first heard from Where Good Ideas Come From, ch1.

For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work.

Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html