Quotes & Links -> Monday

From Johnny Biscuit at A Little Nonsense:

Occasionally we have moments of brilliance. Occasionally a constitution gets written. Occasionally an Einstein comes along and mentions a few things. The constant is ignorance, the anomaly is intelligence. I'm not surprised when people are stupid, I'm surprised when they are smart.

From Felix Gerena at BrandSoul

Are we aware of our actions? Are we really conscious sometimes we are repeating the same things we did in the past? Or, to say it other way, do we sometimes think about situations we repeat as patterns of action?

Gilles Deleuze, the great french philosopher wrote about the sense of remembering in our lives. This is what he wrote:

"Past is repeated as much as it is less remembered, as much as we are less aware of remembering it. The consciousness of oneself appears as the faculty of the future, the function of the new".

And I say, how often do we try to remember about similarities in our lives, and how do we find more creative paths for the future? Are we too involved in the present that it does not allow us to make up our future?

From Kathy Sierra at CreatingPassionateUsers

The more we reverse-engineer passion, the more we see how learning plays the central role. Where there is real passion (not just temporary fad devotion), there is always a desire to learn and grow and improve whether it's snowboard, chess, photography, opera, cooking, or appreciating the difference between a four and five string banjo. The more I learn, the better the experience. the better the experience, the more likely I am to want to learn and know more, and the more likely I am to tip over into being passionate.

From Seth Godin at Seth's blog

Somewhere along the way, people were sold that marketing [equals] advertising. Somewhere along the way, people were trained that marketers are liars (oops). And now we wonder why people are so clueless about what marketing really is. Maybe it's because marketing has a marketing problem.

Marketing is not about trickery or even insincerity. It's about spreading ideas that you believe in, sharing ideas you're passionate about... and doing it with authenticity. Marketing is about treating prospects and customers with respect, and realizing that it's easier to grow the amount of business you do with happy people than it is to find new strangers to accost.

Think about that the next time you hang up on a tele***keter.

From Emily Mann at Notes from the Divine Miss Em

Early on my birthday, yesterday, I thought about where I was exactly ten years prior: after celebrating turning 21 in Georgetown with my bestest friend (who remains so), her boyfriend, and some friends from work (interning at Luntz Research), I was disgorging the results of the celebration in my dorm at GW. At that point, I never would have imagined I would end up ten years later married to my other bestest friend, living in Port Chester (when I went to college, I was sure I would never come back),working as a lawyer in White Plains, thinking that I have the best family ever, and being, in general, deliriously happy and joyous. Who would have thought that Monroe would be in Iraq, that Hilary would be living in Manhattan, and visiting her bf in LA, that my house would be filled with magical people who love me just because I'm me. I never would have guessed the quality and quantity of friends I have now. I remember back then lusting over totally inadequate boys, and wishing I could be like other (more popular, more beautiful, smarter) girls. Now I have an awesome husband and the only person I want to be is a better version of me.