| Keepgoing |
Men will always be making mistakes as long as they are striving after something. During such a long and difficult struggle the researcher might be tempted again and again to abandon his efforts as vain and fruitless, except that every now and then a light strikes across his path which furnishes him with irrefutable proof that, after all his mistakes in taking one by-path after another, he has at least made one step forward towards the discovery of the truth that he is seeking. The steadfast pursuance of one aim and purpose is indispensable to the researcher and that aim will always light his way, even though sometimes it may be dimmed by initial failures. Max Planck 1919 Nobel Prize acceptance speech |
03/31/2025 |
123 |
0.6 |
| Mathematics |
'Why not tell me in words instead of in symbols? Mathematics is just a language, and I want to be able to translate the language'. But I do not think it is possible, because mathematics is _not_ just another language. Mathematics is a language plus reasoning; it is like a language plus logic. Mathematics is a tool for reasoning. It is in fact a big collection of the results of some person's careful thought and reasoning. By mathematics it is possible to connect one statement to another. Richard Feynman, 1967 |
03/28/2025 |
91 |
0.5 |
| Future |
The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society. Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live. Robert F. Kennedy (1966) |
03/27/2025 |
138 |
0.7 |
| Courage |
Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. Robert F. Kennedy (1966) |
03/27/2025 |
59 |
0.3 |
| Knowledge |
A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. James Madison (1822) |
03/22/2025 |
52 |
0.3 |
| Aa |
Section 1. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of this Constitution is hereby repealed. Section 2. Congress shall make no law granting monopolies on ideas, knowledge, or inventions, or prohibiting the free use thereof. |
03/21/2025 |
34 |
0.2 |
| Mathematician |
A mathematician is not a man who can readily manipulate figures; often he cannot. He is not even a man who can readily perform the transformation of equations by the use of calculus. He is primarily an individual who is skilled in the use of symbolic logic on a high plane, and especially he is a man of intuitive judgment in the choice of the manipulative processes he employs. Vannevar Bush - As We May Think, 1945 |
03/16/2025 |
76 |
0.4 |
| Compass |
Live by the compass and not the clock. Greg Bourgond (2010) |
03/16/2025 |
11 |
0.1 |
| Abacus |
What I cannot create, I do not understand. Richard Feynman |
03/15/2025 |
10 |
0.1 |
| Attribution |
If I got a penny every time I saw a quote from a great man widely shared on the Internet with no source that was never actually written by that man I'd have billions of pennies. - Abraham Lincoln |
03/14/2025 |
39 |
0.2 |
| Frequency |
If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. Attributed to Tesla, but uncertain https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/15818/attributed-quote-to-nikola-tesla uncertain |
03/14/2025 |
35 |
0.2 |
| Price |
The surprising thing is not that every man has his price, but how low it is. Commonly attributed to Napoleon but origin unknown |
03/12/2025 |
23 |
0.1 |
| Wrong |
If you agree with everything you've ever said, are you even trying? |
03/12/2025 |
13 |
0.1 |
| Invention |
This I did constantly until I was about seventeen when my thoughts turned seriously to invention. Then I observed to my delight that I could visualize with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materializing inventive concepts and ideas, which is radically opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient. The moment one constructs a device to carry into practise a crude idea he finds himself unavoidably engrost with the details and defects of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained but always at the sacrifice of quality. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever, the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be mathematically treated and the effects calculated or the results determined beforehand from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practise of a crude idea as is being generally done is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money and time. Nikola Tesla's autobiography "My Inventions" https://breckyunits.com/teslaAutobiography.html Nikola Tesla's autobiography "My Inventions" |
03/07/2025 |
385 |
1.9 |
| Figures |
Mathematicians usually have fewer and poorer figures in their papers and books than in their heads. William Thurston On Proof And Progress In Mathematics (1994) https://www.math.toronto.edu/mccann/199/thurston.pdf On Proof And Progress In Mathematics (1994) |
03/03/2025 |
41 |
0.2 |
| Jefferson |
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible, than all others, of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an Idea; which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the reciever cannot dispossess himself of it. It’s peculiar character too is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who recieves an idea from me, recieves instruction himself, without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point; and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement, or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot in nature be a subject of property. Thomas Jefferson (1813) Source https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0322 Source |
02/28/2025 |
206 |
1 |
| Hamming |
Now for the matter of drive. You observe that most great scientists have tremendous drive. I worked for ten years with John Tukey at Bell Labs. He had tremendous drive. One day about three or four years after I joined, I discovered that John Tukey was slightly younger than I was. John was a genius and I clearly was not. Well I went storming into Bode’s office and said, “How can anybody my age know as much as John Tukey does?” He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, grinned slightly, and said, “You would be surprised Hamming, how much you would know if you worked as hard as he did that many years.” I simply slunk out of the office! What Bode was saying was this: “Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest.” Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity – it is very much like compound interest. I don’t want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime. I took Bode’s remark to heart; I spent a good deal more of my time for some years trying to work a bit harder and I found, in fact, I could get more work done. I don’t like to say it in front of my wife, but I did sort of neglect her sometimes; I needed to study. You have to neglect things if you intend to get what you want done. There’s no question about this. Richard Hamming. You and Your Research. 1986 |
02/28/2025 |
337 |
1.7 |
| Patents |
Generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society, and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices. Thomas Jefferson (1813) Source https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0322 Source |
02/28/2025 |
54 |
0.3 |
| Imagination |
The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man. Richard Feynman |
02/24/2025 |
15 |
0.1 |
| Key |
It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is — if it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong. Richard Feynman The principle of science, the definition, almost, is the following: The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific “truth.” Richard Feynman (1963 - Atoms in Motion) |
02/15/2025 |
71 |
0.4 |
| In Practice |
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. |
02/07/2025 |
14 |
0.1 |
| Shoup |
It is said that patriotism is the love of country. I think it is the love of the things about your country that you don’t want to see lost—that you want to see perpetuated—and you’re willing to sacrifice to ensure it. General David M. Shoup |
02/04/2025 |
49 |
0.2 |
| Copying |
A little copying is better than a little dependency. |
02/01/2025 |
9 |
0 |
| Parenting-advice |
"Any advice for a new dad?" [Long pause] "If someone offers you free napkins, take them." "That's it?" "That's the only thing I'm sure of." |
02/01/2025 |
28 |
0.1 |
| Twokinds |
There are two kinds of software: prototype and obsolete. Ben Wheatley |
01/31/2025 |
11 |
0.1 |
| Joke |
I thought it was a good joke. Breck Yunits |
01/23/2025 |
9 |
0 |
| Drawing |
What I cannot draw I do not understand. |
01/16/2025 |
8 |
0 |
| 30years |
To invent a thing that will be used in 2050, invent a thing that would have been used in 1990. |
01/15/2025 |
20 |
0.1 |
| Luck |
A farmer and his son had a beloved horse who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbours exclaimed, "Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!" The farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not." A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild horses back to the farm as well. The neighbours shouted out, "Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!" The farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not." Later that week, the farmer's son was trying to break one of the horses and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbours cried, "Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!" The farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not." A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all boys for the army. They did not take the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg. The neighbours shouted, "Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!" To which the farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not. We'll see." |
01/07/2025 |
181 |
0.9 |
| Tinysteps |
Little tiny steps using local information winds up leading to all the best answers. John Carmack Source: youtube.com/watch?v=I845O57ZSy4&t=18804s |
01/05/2025 |
24 |
0.1 |
| Walking |
Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right. Søren Kierkegaard (1847) |
01/05/2025 |
79 |
0.4 |
| Visual |
I think I’m more visual than symbolic. I try to get a feeling of what’s going on. Equations come later. Claude Shannon |
01/05/2025 |
24 |
0.1 |
| Tutu |
Don't raise your voice, improve your argument. Desmond Tutu |
01/05/2025 |
10 |
0.1 |
| Tools |
The best use the best tools, but need none. |
01/05/2025 |
9 |
0 |
| Three |
I’ve been working on three different ideas simultaneously, and strangely enough it seems a more productive method than sticking to one problem. Claude Shannon |
01/05/2025 |
25 |
0.1 |
| Stealing |
Don't worry about people stealing your idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats. Howard Aiken (invented the computer).<br>Portraits in Silicon. pgs 88-89. |
01/05/2025 |
33 |
0.2 |
| Sivers |
Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status. Derek Sivers (sive.rs/htl08) |
01/05/2025 |
47 |
0.2 |
| Simple |
Make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. Albert Einstein, On the Method of Theoretical Physics |
01/05/2025 |
33 |
0.2 |
| Perlis |
A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing. Alan Perlis |
01/05/2025 |
18 |
0.1 |
| Perfection |
In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Airman's Odyssey. 1939. pg 39 |
01/05/2025 |
38 |
0.2 |
| Odysseus |
Sing in me Muse, and through me tell the story of that man, skilled in all ways of contending... The Odyssey |
01/05/2025 |
21 |
0.1 |
| Money |
People don't understand the true nature of money. It is meant to circulate, not be wrapped up in a stocking. Guglielmo Marconi |
01/05/2025 |
23 |
0.1 |
| Matter |
Just say it. Those that matter don't mind and those that mind don't matter. |
01/05/2025 |
16 |
0.1 |
| Genius |
Do you hear them talking of genius, Degna? There is no such thing. Genius, if you like to call it that, is the gift of work continuously applied. That's all it is, as I have proved for myself. from My Father Marconi |
01/05/2025 |
43 |
0.2 |
| Freedom |
They put a gun to my head and demanded I put a copyright symbol on my ideas. I told them to pull the trigger. |
01/05/2025 |
24 |
0.1 |
| Feynman |
What I cannot create, I do not understand. Richard Feynman |
01/05/2025 |
10 |
0.1 |
| Fear |
Nothing to fear but fear itself. -FDR |
01/05/2025 |
7 |
0 |
| Crackd |
Have you ever heard a crack head say: "I have no money, I'm not going to smoke today." No. They always find a way. Are you gonna let a crack head out hustle you today? Mr. Rogers |
01/05/2025 |
38 |
0.2 |
| Cooperation |
Collaborate with contemporaries. Compete against centuries. |
01/05/2025 |
6 |
0 |
| Complexity |
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. Systemantics (1975; p52) by John Gall |
01/05/2025 |
50 |
0.3 |
| Bold |
Build like no one is coming to save you. And then be bold. Sometimes mighty forces will come to your aid. |
01/05/2025 |
21 |
0.1 |
| Best |
Collaborate with your contemporaries. Compete against other centuries. We are Team 20. |
01/05/2025 |
12 |
0.1 |
| Amazed |
Writing everyday has amazing consequences. |
01/05/2025 |
5 |
0 |
| Eye |
An eye in your mind<br>so you can fly<br>and go high<br>every time. |
12/14/2024 |
17 |
0.1 |
| Banger |
The Banger ========== There's a person online who is never ignored, wherever they post or they play; their content's the stuff that the people adore, from morning to end of the day. They’re cheered on with likes in the digital lands, and followed by all neighborhoods; wherever they post, there's applause and more fans— they’re The Banger Who Delivers the Goods. The lurkers of feeds just scroll on and lament; their posts never seem to take flight; their memes miss the mark, their replies seem half-sent, their engagement's a trickle, not quite. The crowd tires of accounts that just fade into blur, in the echo of bland neighborhoods; but there’s one who commands every comment and stir— they’re The Banger Who Delivers the Goods. Some barely can bother, just sharing reposts, and hoping for traction in vain; some clog up the feed with their endless lame boasts, and some whine their way to disdain. But one always crafts with precision and flair, while others stay stuck in their moods; they hit every platform with style and care— they’re The Banger Who Delivers the Goods. One frets if they’ve shared something too spicy, and one stays too safe, dull, and bland; one floods with spam, trying to stay commercial, but their reach is just dust in the sand. So here’s to the wizard of wit and of charm, whose posts lift us all out of slumps; it’s a toast to the genius, the digital star— The Banger Who Delivers the Goods! @breckyunits ============ |
12/08/2024 |
263 |
1.3 |
| Credit |
In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. Francis Darwin (1914) |
11/20/2024 |
25 |
0.1 |
| Tldraw |
The pen is mightier than the sword. And someday there will be a thing called tldraw, and that will be mightier than the pen. Abraham Lincoln |
11/20/2024 |
26 |
0.1 |
| Lewis |
A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age. CS Lewis |
11/20/2024 |
56 |
0.3 |
| Ideas |
You wouldn't put your children in chains. Why would you put your ideas in ©hains? Publish your ideas with love, not licenses. |
11/20/2024 |
23 |
0.1 |
| Einstein |
Make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. On the Method of Theoretical Physics by Albert Einstein |
11/20/2024 |
34 |
0.2 |