David Walton > Quotes

“Someday you'll understand. You'll have your own children, and they'll mean more to you than the world. A wife has to defend her children, even against her own husband. Not that I expect you to be easily cowed. But sometimes, despite all you say and do, your husband won't be dissuaded from folly. When that happens, as a mother you have to close ranks. Your first responsibility is to your children. To salvage what you can. Even if they hate you for it.”
― David Walton, Quintessence

“Inefficiency is imagination. It’s singing in the rain and vaudeville shows and sandcastles and whimsy and falling in love and yearning for our dreams to come true. Inefficiency is the best part of who we are.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“There was no question of the United States winning this fight. It was just a question of how much of Brazil would be flattened in the process.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“Nobody knows: they just believe, and then because everyone else believes it, too, it feels like it couldn’t possibly be wrong. But consensus doesn’t mean truth. In fact, it means a lack of critical thinking, a blind following of the status quo. Humans are really good at doing that, too.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“How much did a degree and a neat resume really prepare someone for a job? The Alan Turings and Claude Shannons of the world had been eccentric, inventive, forceful people. Rule breakers. The people at Bletchley Park and Room 40 didn’t stop to check boxes; they got the job done no matter what the cost.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“Mushrooms are only a small part of fungal anatomy. A mushroom is just how a fungus has sex.” Maisie’s slim eyebrows arched high. “Oh, really,” she said. “It’s true. A single fungus in a forest like this can go on for miles, underground, wrapping itself around tree roots. The mushrooms are just its reproductive parts. Fungi are some of the largest living things on Earth. Each tendril is nearly microscopic, but put together they can weigh far more than any California redwood or blue whale.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“There were always stereotypes,” I said. “Americans are fat; Americans only care about money; Americans don’t care about their families. And everyone thinks America wants to rule the world.” “Don’t you?” Celso asked. I glanced at him to see if he was joking. “We don’t want to rule,” I said. “We just vigorously advance our own interests.” “Seriously,” he said. “The United States is powerful. You control all the oceans and all the shipping lanes. You tell other countries where they can sail their navies, when they’re allowed to trade, and when they’re allowed to fight with their neighbors. Of course people hate you.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“I couldn’t tell what I really thought until I explained it aloud to someone and heard what I said.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“There's a lot more to being human than being smart.”
― David Walton, The Genius Plague

“At its most basic, emotional intelligence is the ability to manage the impact of emotions on our relationships with others. It involves recognizing accurately how you and others feel at any particular time and the way emotions are affecting the situation. It involves keeping feelings sufficiently in control so that we can act effectively. And in no small part it involves using good interpersonal skills to create positive relationships with both individuals and groups. Our ability to express the emotions we feel in a constructive way is the cornerstone of staying in control.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“emotional intelligence is an essential requirement where there is a need to work with, influence and seek cooperation with other people.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“It's like the guy in the Apollo 13 movie who says, 'Power is everything.' The kind of computers you're talking about, the ones that rival the human brain for processing nodes, consume on the order of four million watts of power. The chunk of meat in your head - which is not a computer, by the way - uses twenty watts. Not twenty million. Just twenty. Our brains are efficient thermodynamic systems, designed to help us produce valuable work from the potential energy around us in the world. Computers are simply extensions of our minds - tools we use that heighten that production value.”
― David Walton, The Genius Plague

“Problems of unclear goals are best picked up straight away. When people are feeling uncertain or vulnerable, they need empathy then, not later.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“We don't get to choose the world we live in," she said, her words slow and tired. "To tell you the truth, the one I've been living in so far isn't that great most of the time. The fungus has unlocked a vulnerability in the human mind. The genie is out of the bottle, and there's no putting it back. It will be used, and it will be used for evil, I have no doubt. But I can't solve all the world's problems. I can't even solve my own family's most of the time. All I can do is the best I can with my limited knowledge and the tools at hand.”
― David Walton, The Genius Plague

“EI is based on an important feature of relationships: ‘behaviour breeds behaviour’. Our own approach may be the cause of others’ reactions. Emotional intelligence requires us to be mindful of the effect we have.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Low self-esteem and confidence are closely related to your mood and self-image, so it is important to realize that beliefs are only opinions, they are not facts. They can be biased or inaccurate, and there are steps you can take to change them.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“If the beliefs are mainly negative, there is evidence that they can put you at a higher risk of mental health problems”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Our own approach may be the cause of others’ reactions. Emotional intelligence requires us to be mindful of the effect we have.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“We've taken a small part of how our brain works - the patterns of dendrites and axons and synapses - and we've built computer architectures around them. But that's all it is - a symbolic machine inspired by the human brain. Real brains are biological pieces of meat inextricably connected to the bodies that host them and the environments they inhabit in a million essential ways. A computer is a complex tool, but it's not a brain. It requires the human operator to be its body, to be its environment, by writing its algorithm and feeding it data. If we really want to make an artificial construct that can think like we do, we have to start over with a completely different concept.”
― David Walton, The Genius Plague

“Self-awareness is about understanding ourselves and knowing what pushes our buttons and why. Our past and our self-image”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Keep your impulsiveness under control, or your behaviour when you are feeling anxious or distressed.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Our beliefs and assumptions act as filters for what we see and what we observe.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Emotional intelligence has been touted as an explanation of what your brain does, a means to achieve your goals, a basis for improving your family life and relationships, improving your job prospects and being more successful at work.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“It’s about being aware of feelings in yourself and in others, understanding them and managing their impact. It’s about being in control, interpreting body language, coping with negativity, working with others and building psychological well-being.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“emotional intelligence is much more a characteristic of optimists than of pessimists.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Optimism is often a consequence of EI.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Having trouble with the help?” I asked. “Trying to weed out those who kiss other asses to cover their own,” she said. “There are people who get things done, and people who just get in the way.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“Think, his eyebrows would say. Dig deeper. There’s more to discover.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague

“But self-awareness is more than paying attention thoroughly. It is changing how we pay attention.”
― David Walton, A Practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Get Smart about Emotion

“Intelligence ultimately isn’t Boolean. It isn’t about logic. It’s physical. It’s a continuous chemical give-and-take with everything around it.”
― David Walton, Genius Plague