The Core

"There are two kinds of people. Avoid both."
   - random X/Twitter


"Eagles don't flock. You have to find them one at a time."
This was the slogan that Ross Perot gave to the recruiters at EDS. At a time when companies were hiring white males from good colleges (1960s and 1970s), Perot told his recruiters to cast wide nets and not to expect that finding one "eagle" (someone who can soar above the others) at Yale* was any reason to believe you'd find another there. EDS was hiring dropouts, young black males (alas few women) and promoting them fast and young if they had talent. Ron Davis, one of the young black males Perot hired, said that the only thing you got for free at EDS was the chance to prove yourself, but as a black man in the late 1960s, that set them apart.

I found Ken Follett's "On the Wings of Eagles" on the street and read it. It is the story of two employees who were essentially taken hostage by the Iranian government in the early days of the revolution and how, while pursuing all means legal and illegal (diplomatic pressure, paying bail/ransome to get them out), Perot engaged the services of an ex-commando famous for raiding Son Tay Prison in Vietnam to break out the prisoners who, unfortunately, had been moved just before the raid, to go to Iran and break his men out if all other means failed. In the end, all other means failed, and it was this team of the commando and seven EDS employees, most former military, that eventually got the two men out of the country.

I know Perot as that odd presidential candidate in 1992. He was a character, at times hard to work for. But one thing the book shows through the main story and some side stories is that he was fiercely loyal to employees under him. One of the guys rescued said something to the effect that he could not imagine there was another CEO of a Fortune 500 company that would organize a prison break for his employees, let alone travel to Iran in the midst of a revolution to push it along.

*Yale... that's my interpretation. The book doesn't mention specific college, but just the general idea that recruiters need to be looking everywhere, because eagles don't flock

If you think you're reasonable, you should want AIs to be trained on your writing. They're going to be trained on something, and if you're excluded that would bring down the average.

(This is a separate question from whether you should get paid for it.)

- Paul Graham

That has me rethinking my recent comments about content writers blocking these bots.

>> Everest

Quotes that don't hit home

I was explaining to our 16yo guest a while back that the saying, "Quitters never win and winners never quit" is one of the dumbest sayings ever. She asked why. I said, "Well, for starters, that's a good way to die mountaineering. I prefer another saying: 'Making the summit is optional. Making it back to basecamp is not.'"

Or even better, the Don Whillans (great British climber and bar brawler) quote: "I don’t mind fighting my way out of trouble but I'm dammed if I'll fight my way into it."

All of the following are excerpts from https://www.summitpost.org/don-whillans-the-ard-little-man-in-the-flat-at/596570

Some tongues criticized Don Whillans because he was unsuccessful on many peaks. If he was, it was probably due to the fact that Don considered survival the key to mountaineering; "There are two types of climbers - the smart ones and dead ones." Other comments on the same theme were "I don’t mind fighting my way out of trouble but I'm dammed if I'll fight my way into it" and "The mountains will always be there, the trick is for you to be there as well."

The second of those, about fighting your way into trouble, is one of my all-time favorite quotes both in and out of a mountaineering context. Theresa and I sometimes use it as a heuristic whether it's climbing, relations with a co-worker, finances: "Are we just fighting our way into trouble here?"

On one occasion Don and Tom Patey came rushing down the Eiger with a storm in their heels. They met two Japanese climbers. "Going up?" wondered Whillans. "Yes, yes, up to the summit, the first Japanese ascent", they answered in one voice. "You may be going up, mate, but a lot 'igher than you think!" said Whillans and added " 'appy little pair, I don’t imagine we'll ever see them again."

He also had a penchant for bar fights and hard drinking, which perhaps turned out to be more dangerous than his climbing (died of a heart attack at 52), and a reputation for an acerbic wit, e.g.:

Don Whillans participated in the 1972 European Everest Expedition. The atmosphere was not the best among the various nationalities, no one wanted to carry loads because everyone was saving himself for a possible summit attempt. The German climbers heard on the radio that England had lost a soccer game to Germany. The conversation went "It seems that we have beaten you in your national sport", said a proud German to Don. After a minimal pause Don replied "Aye lad, and we've beaten you at yours, twice."

"We have an infinite capacity to create scarcity."

That's a paraphrase. I'm not sure whether I read it or the thought came to me from reading this thread started by Stewart Brand (a person I greatly admire)
https://x.com/stewartbrand/status/1825216798083662152

I thought something very close to the above quote was somewhere in the thread as a one-liner, but now that I look for it, I can't find it. And there we have the perfect example: in the midst of many posts the one I am looking for is scarce

We knew a stained glass artist with a PhD in biology and she said without the PhD she could not imagine making it as an artist because science taught her to keep detailed lab notes, which is what made her glass making reproducible

For me it would be the exact opposite, but I get the idea. I decided to try coffee again a couple of months ago... still have not acquired the taste.