Siddharth

“This was the strategy that concerned Podhorzer, who worried that the approach reflected “an overconfidence in the liberal mind that only a fool would vote for Bush again, so therefore all we had to do was base turnout.” He returned to the AFL dispirited by his exchange with the Kerry campaign and his sense that Democrats had chosen to ignore winnable votes in part because the statistical methods used to identify them were not properly understood by campaign decision makers. “At the time,” says Podhorzer, “all of this just sounded like alien talk to most people.”
― Sasha Issenberg, The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns

“Conqueror I might be of the house but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possesor of its clay dwelling-place. And it is you, spirit -- with will and energy, and virtue and purity -- that I want: not alone your brittle frame”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“She went back to the computer, typed in $50, and then sat back, feeling relieved. It was a bit of insurance. So as long her maximum was the highest, she would still win. 3:59. Less than a minute left. She began to count down, and then, with only twenty seconds to go, the bid jumped to $32.45. And then it jumped again, and again! Not one, but two snipers were bidding on her Hansel and Gretel! She held her breath and crossed her fingers and counted—five, four, three, two . . . The Congratulations, You’ve Won! message popped on to her screen, along with her winning bid. $49.45. She sat back in her chair, triumphant. It felt so good to win.”
― Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness

“Consumerism provides no psychological satisfaction, because there is no limit to our desires for things that we never needed in the first place.”
― Emily Wilson, The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca