Joe Edwards

“In reality, the difference between Sparta and Athens, or between Savonarola and Lorenzo de’ Medici, had nothing to do with their genes; nor did the difference between the Easter Islanders and the imperial British. They were all people – universal explainers and constructors. But their ideas were different. Nor did landscape cause the Enlightenment.”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

“When you see something wrong, take the initiative to fix it. James Murphy, the founder and front man of LCD Soundsystem, said it well: “The best way to complain is to make things.” When you find yourself frustrated or critical, channel that energy into persistent creation. If it’s not your job, pursue it anyway.”
― Scott Belsky, The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture

“The real source of our theories is conjecture, and the real source of our knowledge is conjecture alternating with criticism. We create theories by rearranging, combining, altering and adding to existing ideas with the intention of improving upon them. The role of experiment and observation is to choose between existing theories, not to be the source of new ones. We interpret experiences through explanatory theories, but true explanations are not obvious. Fallibilism entails not looking to authorities but instead acknowledging that we may always be mistaken, and trying to correct errors.”
― David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

“One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956