Sobering Quotes

“Everybody's possibilities solidify round them and become limitations.”
― A.S. Byatt, The Game

“The first finding that jumped out at us was that it is possible to learn too much ! In the tournament, investing lots of time in learning was not at all effective. In fact, we found a strong negative correlation between the proportion of a strategy's moves that were INNOVATE or OBSERVE, as opposed to EXPLOIT, and how well the strategy performed. Successful strategies spent only a small fraction of their time (5-10%) learning, and the bulk of their time caching in on what they had learned, through playing EXPLOIT. Only through playing EXPLOIT can a strategy directly accrue fitness. Hencem every time a strategy chooses to learn new behavior, be it through playing INNOVATE or OBSERVE, there is a cost corresponding to the payoff that would have been received had EXPLOIT been played instead. This implied that the way to get on in life was to do a very quick bit of learning and then EXPLOIT, EXPLOIT, EXPLOIT until you die. That is a sobering lesson for someone like myself who has spent his whole life in school or university.”
― Kevin N Laland, Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind

“Perhaps all of this is done in the hopes that we won’t notice just how quickly everything is changing”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“I was never able to tell if the sight of Iliza was sobering or if it was intoxicating. I just knew that her presence had an undeniable influence on my perception.”
― Sean Norris