Quotes About Evolution

Life is a series of abandonings.

often started in a different hemisphere.

Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation. —Mason Cooley

Build what you need as you need it, aggressively refactoring as you go along; don't spend a lot of time planning for grandiose, unknown future scenarios. Good software can evolve into what it will ultimately become.

We humans co-evolve with our tools. We change the tools, and the tools change us.

The physical book really has had a 500-year run. It's probably the most successful technology ever. It's hard to come up with things that have had a longer run. If Gutenberg were alive today, he would recognize the physical book and know how to operate it immediately. Given how much change there has been everywhere else, what's remarkable is how stable the book has been for so long. But no technology, not even one as elegant as the book, lasts forever.

Strip malls are a symbol for marginal, low-experience stores that nobody really wants to go to. Over time, say within 10 years, maybe 15 percent of commerce will move online. Will that have a big impact on the physical world? Absolutely. What will that effect be? It will force stores to get better. The ones that don't get better will go by the wayside.

I think the great thing about humans in general is we're always improving things.

There's a tendency, I think, for executives to think that the right course of action is to stick to the knitting--stick with what you're good at. That may be a generally good rule, but the problem is the world changes out from under you if you're not constantly adding to your skill set.

Strip malls are history.

I've always been at the intersection of computers and whatever they can revolutionize.

To me, this book is sort of like a snakeskin. A snakeskin is something you might find on the side of the road and make something out of—a belt, say, or a hatband. The snake itself heads off doing more snake stuff—getting it on with lady snakes, eating rats, making more snakeskins, et cetera.

As the Dude says, New shit comes to light, and when it does, you'll pick it up again.

We've arrived at the point where technology and information come hurtling towards us.

we are not wired to make decisions about barely perceptible threats that gradually accelerate over time. We're not so different from the proverbial frog that boils to death in a pot of slowly warming water.

There is a common misconception that the human brain is the pinnacle of billions of years of evolution. This may be true if we think of the entire nervous system. However, the human neocortex itself is a relatively new structure and hasn't been around long enough to undergo much long-term evolutionary refinement.

Our neocortex has invented powerful technologies that are capable of changing the entire Earth, but the human behavior that controls these world-changing technologies is often dominated by the selfish and shortsighted old brain.

The choice we face as we think about the future is, should we continue to be driven by our biological past or choose instead to embrace our newly emerged intelligence? We may not be able to do both.

I progressed through so many different styles of music through my teen years, both as a player and a vocalist, particularly the jazz and pop of the early 20th Century.

Shadows of what you'll become. Silhouettes.

Every once in a while, I think about exercising and getting really buff. But in the future, I'll bet everyone will just be able to take a pill and get fit without having to exercise, anyway. Being in great shape will be NORMAL, and all the people who AREN'T fit will be the ones everyone's attracted to. So if I just stick with my current exercise plan, I'll be all set.

There is a natural progression to everything in life: plant, cultivate, harvest.

You are either improving or diminishing in personal and professional value.

For things to change, you've got to change. For things to get better, you've got to get better. It's easy to do. But it's easy not to do, too.