Perfection is the enemy of progress

There’s a saying in Chinese. It rhymes in Chinese (which makes it so much cooler) but the translated version is this:

Given equivalent units of gold and time, it is easy to trade time for gold, but it is challenging to trade gold for time.

Essentially, be wary of how much you’re devoting to your work, because it doesn’t matter how successful you are, you will never get your life back

There’s another one that I find to be very relevant with the times:

a boat with naturally straighten itself when it nears a bridge

It’s a descriptivist version of the English saying “we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Essentially, problems have a way of sorting themselves out when things get desperate enough

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” — George Bernard Shaw

You have to do something poorly before you can do it well.

I’ve got some.

“I keep cutting but it’s still too short.”

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to act despite it.”

“We see the effects of things, not the things themselves.”

Assumption is the mother of all fuckups.

A few from the file I keep:

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is. - Jan van de Snepscheut

I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned. - Richard Feynman

Give a man a mask and he’ll show you his true face. - Oscar Wilde (paraphrased)

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. - C.S. Lewis

Magic is science you can’t explain. Science is magic you can. - My Daughter

You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago. - Alan Watts

What you do to achieve your goals must never become more important than the goals themselves. - Anonymous

“The only decision you should do when you are angry is to stop being angry.” Timothy Zahn

“The graveyard is filled with people who had the right of way”

The classic weekend/party safety brief

• Do NOT add to the population.
• Do NOT subtract from the population.
• Do NOT end up in the newspaper, hospital or jail.
• • If you do end up in jail, establish dominance quickly.

We have a few addendums in my circles.

• A man should be in the newspaper three times, when he is born, when he is wed, and when he dies. (Ron Swanson)

• Never do anything you would be afraid to explain to the paramedics.

(Addressed to my college age relatives, I would always pick them up, the folks dont need to know, you do have to tell the guy scraping your sorry ass off the pavement what you broke)

A former boss would say, “Don’t just do something. Sit there!”

It’s a way to remember that very often it is more important to do the right thing than it is to just do something. Stop, think, then act.

The boy complained about his shoes till he met the boy with no feet.

I learned kinda early that we were not rich and I didn’t really bug my mom for much.

“Do not ask for a lighter load, but wider shoulders.” -on trials and tribulations.

“Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” -on compassion and perspective.

“It takes pressure to make diamonds.” -on appreciating adversity.

“You can either laugh or cry. Take your pick.” -on the absurdities of life.

“You can never go home again” -on impermanence. Not in the literal sense of never being able to physically go home, but rather that specific time and place in life that can’t be returned to.

“You are the captain of your ship.” -on taking command of your life.

*If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging"

If you find yourself in a bad place, don’t make it worse.

“I don’t know” is a valid scientific statement and (hopefully) the beginning of wisdom