Sushmita

“It is a testament to the unsettling beauty of the genome that it can make the real world "stick". Our genes do not keep spitting out stereotypical responses to idiosyncratic environments: if they did, we too would devolve into windup automatons. Hindu philosophers have long described the experience of "being" as a web - jaal. Genes form the threads of the web; the detritus that sticks is what transforms every individual web into a being. There is an exquisite precision in that mad scheme. Genes must carry out programmed responses to environments - otherwise, there would be no conserved form. But they must also leave exactly enough room for the vagaries of chance to stick. We call this intersection "fate". We call our responses to it "choice". An upright organism with opposable thumbs is thus built from a script, but built to go off script. We call one such unique variant of one such organism a "self.”
― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History

“...to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery. And one does not get lost but loses oneself, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender...”
― Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

“Sense-driven describes a situation in which progress pivots on our sensory perceptions. Let's pit this concept against that of the technology-driven world. Reviewing the world based on our senses would be sound and meaningful for technology as well.”
― Kenya Hara, Designing Design

“But taking wrong trains, encountering unexpected delays, and suffering occasional mechanical breakdowns are inevitable to any journey really worth taking. One learns to get oneself turned around and headed the right way.”
― Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me