Roopa

“And it is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained. —Hegel”
― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

“Now, it has been independently shown that people hate to lose something more than they enjoy gaining it. For example, they don't mind paying for something with a credit card even when told there is a discount for cash, but they hate paying the same amount if they are told there is a surcharge for using credit. As a result, people will often refuse to gamble for an expected profit (they turn down bets such as "Heads, you win $120; tails, you pay $100), but they will gamble to avoid an expected loss (such as "Heads, you no longer owe $120; tails, you now owe an additional $100"). (This kind of behavior drives economists crazy, but is avidly studied by investment firms hoping to turn it to their advantage.) The combination of people's loss aversion with the effects of framing explains the paradoxical result: the "gain" metaphor made the doctors risk-averse; the "loss" metaphor made them gamblers.”
― Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

“Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing. —Voltaire”
― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

“Solving a problem is hard enough; it gets that much harder if you’ve decided beforehand it can’t be done.”
― Steven D. Levitt, Think Like a Freak