Asher Feigenbaum

“Being a taker has short-term benefits, but it is inherently limited. In the end, no one wants to help you because they know what you are really like. Who are a taker’s worst enemies? Other takers. While givers receive tons of help from other givers and protection from matchers—who believe that, to maintain fairness, kind acts should be rewarded—they only have takers to worry about. Meanwhile, takers end up being disliked by everyone, including other takers… Even matchers, who benefit from trust and reciprocity, are inherently limited because they often wait for someone else to initiate a good act, which prevents exchanges that could be beneficial for both parties.”
― Eric Barker, Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

“Choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable because it requires us to surender to uncertainty. We have to ask questions, admit to not knowing, risk being told that we shouldn't be asking, and, sometimes, make discoveries that lead to discomfort.”
― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

“Our society is awash with founders, all listening to the same leadership podcasts, doing the same kettlebell lunges to improve grip and leg strength at the same time, then dissolving identical Tim Ferriss–approved muscle-building complexes into their post-workout shakes to transform their previously similar mesomorph bodies into something even more metabolically equivalent. All while making parallel grandiose-style projections about their own app, disruption, or innovation whereby their personal self-interest miraculously aligns with the interest of society writ large and places them as CEO/founder/servant-leader on the very prow of the vessel of civilization.”
― Benjamin Lorr, The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

“Bill Knudsen summed up simply and succinctly. “Progress is only made when fear is overcome by curiosity,” he said. “If you are curious enough, you will not have any fear.”
― Arthur Herman, Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II