i-TFTD #100

#100-1. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
-Bill Gates

#100-2. Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

-Cecil Beaton

#100-3. It is a curious fact that of all the illusions that beset mankind none is quite so curious as that tendency to suppose that we are mentally and morally superior to those who differ from us in opinion.

-Elbert Hubbard

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My first reaction on reading the first one is: if you are Bill Gates you can say anything and it will be considered profound. Well, that itself is a useful hint, isn't it? Achieve something in some area first, then expect to get a better hearing.

The third one is interesting. We either give too much credence or too little respect to difference in opinion. Rarely do we approach it neutrally. That is why we need reminders to treat different ideas as we treat complementary colors, and reminders to avoid conformity (like the second quote above).