Elyse Kim > Elyse's Quotes

“A truly magnificent thing about the way the brain was coded, Sam thought, was that it could say “Excuse me” while meaning “Screw you.” Unless they were unreliable or clearly established as lunatics or scoundrels, characters in novels, movies, and games were meant to be taken at face value—the totality of what they did or what they said. But people—the ordinary, the decent and basically honest—couldn’t get through the day without that one indispensable bit of programming that allowed you to say one thing and mean, feel, even do, another.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“Marx’s life had been filled with such abundance that he was one of those people who found it natural to care for those around him.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“What is a game?" Marx said. "It's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“But sometimes, you have to make your game in the time that you have. If you're always aiming for perfection, you won't make anything at all.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“A good game designer know that clinging to a few early ideas about a project can cut off the potential for the work. Sadie did not feel the Naomi was altogether a person yet, which was another thing that one could not admit. So many of the mothers she knew said that their children were exactly themselves from the moment they appeared in the world. But Sade disagreed. What person was a person without language? Tastes? Preferences? Experiences? And on the other side of childhood, what grown-up wanted to believe that they had emerged from their parents fully made? Sadie knew that she herself had not become a person until recently. It was unreasonable to expect a child to emerge whole cloth. Naomi was a pencil sketch off a person who, at some point, would be a fully 3D character.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“A year and a half later, she could tell the story to Dov as an amusing brunch anecdote, and she realized she wasn't angry at Sam anymore. She began to feel a tenderness toward Sam and even an empathy for him.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“Show up early. Work hard. Stay late. Have a plan. Deliver on your promises. Share the hardships with the employees. Show that you care. Admit your mistakes. And—did I mention?—work hard.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“The day you no longer believe you have something to prove, the day you no longer believe you must give it your all, the day you think you are entitled to special treatment, the day you think all your hard days are behind you, is the day you are no longer the right leader for the job.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“Every time I was about to make an important decision, I asked myself, 'Can I stand before the long green table and be satisfied that I took all the right actions?”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“To live above the common level of life: to be noble when others may be unprincipled, to be honorable when others may be shameless, to be men and women of integrity when others may resort to dishonesty. What I found in leading an being led by great officers from all branches of service was the importance of character and having a personal code of honor to help guide you through the difficult times.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“Be decisive. Don't take too much counsel of your fears. Be thoughtful, but not paralyzed by indecision.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“Sooner or later we all have to do things we don't want to do. But if you're going to do it, then do it right. Build the best damn Frog Float you can!”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“Measure the strength of your employees by their willingness to do the little tasks and do them well.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“When you take action of your own accord, it sets the tone for the organization . . . I guarantee you the mistakes of action are far less consequential than the mistakes of inaction.”
― William H. McRaven

“Leaders can often convince themselves that they are too important to be dealing with the mundane issues of the organization . . . Never forget that there are also problems that need solving at the lowest possible level. Problems that, if not addressed, result in inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and low morale.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“I have found in my years of leading that when confronted with a challenging decision, I almost always know the right answer. It's just that the right answer is hard to accept, and the decisions are hard to make, because we do not live in a world of isolation.”
― William H. McRaven, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple

“The future isn’t written in the stars. There are no guarantees. So claim your adulthood. Be intentional. Get to work. Pick your family. Do the math. Make your own certainty. Don’t be defined by what you didn’t know or didn’t do. You are deciding your life right now.”
― Meg Jay, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now

“While most would agree with Socrates that, "the unexamined life is not worth living," a lesser-known quote by Sheldon Kopp might be more important here: "The unlived life is not worth examining.”
― Meg Jay, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter - And How to Make the Most of Them Now

“The one thing I have learned is that you can’t think your way through life. The only way to figure out what to do is to do—something.”
― Meg Jay, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now

“Knowing what to overlook is one way older adults are typically wiser than young adults. With age comes what is known as "positivity effect". We become more interested in positive information, and our brains react less strongly to what negative information we do encounter.”
― Meg Jay, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter - And How to Make the Most of Them Now

“The more you use your brain, the more brain you will have to use. "
—George A. Dorsey, anthropologist”
― Meg Jay, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter - And How to Make the Most of Them Now

“Identity capital is our collection of personal assets. It is the repertoire of individual resources that we assemble over time. These are the investments we make in ourselves, the things we do well enough, or long enough, that they become a part of who we are. Some identity capital goes on a résumé, such as degrees, jobs, test scores, and clubs. Other identity capital is more personal, such as how we speak, where we are from, how we solve problems, how we look. Identity capital is how we build ourselves—bit by bit, over time. Most important, identity capital is what we bring to the adult marketplace. It is the currency we use to metaphorically purchase jobs and relationships and other things we want.”
― Meg Jay, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now

“Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius,” Nietzsche said. “For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking. . . . To call someone ‘divine’ means: ‘here there is no need to compete.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“And what about talent? Nietzsche implored us to consider exemplars to be, above all else, craftsmen: “Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became ‘geniuses’ (as we put it). . . . They all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“...there are no shortcuts to excellence. Developing real expertise, figuring out really hard problems, it all takes time―longer than most people imagine....you've got to apply those skills and produce goods or services that are valuable to people....Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you're willing to stay loyal to it...it's doing what you love, but not just falling in love―staying in love.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success

“Jeff's passion emerged over a period of years. And it wasn't just a process of passive discovery -- of unearthing a little gem hidden inside his psyche -- but rather of active construction. Jeff didn't just go looking for his passion -- he helped create it.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll puts it this way: "Do you have a life philosophy?”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“During his twenty-year professional baseball career, Seaver aimed to pitch “the best I possibly can day after day, year after year.” Here is how that intention gave meaning and structure to all his lower-order goals: Pitching . . . determines what I eat, when I go to bed, what I do when I’m awake. It determines how I spend my life when I’m not pitching. If it means I have to come to Florida and can’t get tanned because I might get a burn that would keep me from throwing for a few days, then I never go shirtless in the sun. . . . If it means I have to remind myself to pet dogs with my left hand or throw logs on the fire with my left hand, then I do that, too. If it means in the winter I eat cottage cheese instead of chocolate chip cookies in order to keep my weight down, then I eat cottage cheese. The life Seaver described sounds grim. But that’s not how Seaver saw things: “Pitching is what makes me happy. I’ve devoted my life to it. . . . I’ve made up my mind what I want to do. I’m happy when I pitch well so I only do things that help me be happy.” What I mean by passion is not just that you have something you care about. What I mean is that you care about that same ultimate goal in an abiding, loyal, steady way. You are not capricious. Each day, you wake up thinking of the questions you fell asleep thinking about. You are, in a sense, pointing in the same direction, ever eager to take even the smallest step forward than to take a step to the side, toward some other destination. At the extreme, one might call your focus obsessive. Most of your actions derive their significance from their allegiance to your ultimate concern, your life philosophy. You have your priorities in order.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“When I am around people,” Kat wrote, “my heart and soul radiate with the awareness that I am in the presence of greatness. Maybe greatness unfound, or greatness underdeveloped, but the potential or existence of greatness nevertheless. You never know who will go on to do good or even great things or become the next great influencer in the world—so treat everyone like they are that person.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance