I always loved browsing such posts on reddit, so thought I should make one on lemmy too
Edit: Usually these kind of posts only used to have excerpts from books or ancient proverbs, but now I am seeing a lot more quotes from shows/movies/games are also resonating with people. It’s pretty cool to see.
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Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Damn… that’s better that the muddy pig wrestling one and the pigeon chess one both.
Can’t argue with that
What’s the pigeon one
“Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are, the bird is going to shit on the board and strut around like it won anyway.” Shannon L. Alder
Copy/pasted from Goodreads, I’m not actually verifying.
Whats the muddy pig wrestling one
Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw
Also copy/pasted from Goodreads, so not guaranteeing the accuracy that Shaw originally said it. Also usually worded in a more fun way.
Can’t quite remember but it’s something like…
I took a long time to warm to this one. I used to think that if I could just make the right arguments people would agree with me. Eventually, I realised that even if they’re perfectly reasonable, natural language has a certain bitrate, and human memory has a certain bitrate of loss over a given timeframe. If you can’t explain your idea quickly one of you will hit it.
Am I wrong or is that George Carlin?
https://quoteinvestigator.medium.com/never-argue-with-stupid-people-316627b20567
That was a great read, thank you for that!
That was a great read, thank you!
Piss-poor planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on mine.
I dislike this one quite a bit. I’m a good planner, but we’re all human, and can forget sometimes. This quote is just an excuse to feel better about not helping someone out, and not in a healthy I’m-setting-boundaries manner.
I think there’s a difference between being a shitty person and being unwilling to help and being repeatedly used because you’ve helped out a couple of times before and now people end up leveraging your kindness. I personally subscribe to the line of thinking in the comment you replied to after giving the person I’m working with the benefit of the doubt that it’s a justified emergency a couple of times. I have a list of people at work now that I’ll still assist but I don’t jump at the opportunity as quickly because everything is an emergency to them and I think that’s just as shitty as not helping someone.
Just to clarify, I phrase it a bit differently: Not “piss-poor planning” but rather “a lack of planning” since it sounds less aggressive.
It’s two bad ends of a spectrum, really.
I think that’s why it says “emergency”. Asking for help is okay, dumping your problems over to me so it’s my “emergency” is not.
You can ask for help and give me some of your work, but not your responsibilities.
I disagree. The quote has an “I fucked up, what are you going to do about it?” vibe.
To be fair, my workplace is full of people that socialize 75% of the workday and constantly reply with “I’ll get around to it as soon as I can.”
…and then don’t.
And then I have to scramble to do their job when the task suddenly becomes more short-fused.
Thank gods I retire in a year.
I could be the bigger person and remind them about it, but it’s not my job to babysit peers and/or supervisors.
‘This is a you problem. Not an us problem.’
Related: Remember your PPPPPPPs! Proper planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance!
Corollary: Prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance.
Believe those who are seeking the truth, doubt those who find it
Just not everyone who claims to be seeking the truth!
Love this one. Reminds me of the quote “never stop looking for what’s not there.”
It takes a woman nine months to make a baby, nine women cannot make a baby in a month.
Classic (and likely mangled by myself) computer science quote which I always enjoy encountering in the wild!
Classic project management quote.
It’s from “The Mythical Man Month” by Fred Brooks. It was published in 1975. I’ve seen people make the same project management mistakes that the book discussed for the last 30 years.
Sorry to break it to you, but that’s almost 50 years.
Ive always heard that one from a Project Management perspective. Ive used it myself once or twice actually!
Nine women can average one baby per month, but only with an extra nine months of pre-planning.
Jean-Luc Picard
That’s a good one. Also, “no being is so important that it may usurp the rights of another”.
Something along the lines of:
‘You’re just an NPC in everyone else’ life, no one really cares about what weird shoes you wear, or whatever. No one’s remembering, don’t worry about it’
Really helps out in the world really, it’s kinda true.
Yeah, but that means if you stick out too much, you’ll get recorded and posted online for entertainment
This really helped me get over anxiety. After walking around the earth a while - yea, noone cares lmao.
people online feel less like NPCs somehow. I guess cause we can read their perspective
Not my whole life but ever since I learned it twenty years ago in the army. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. It’s a saying that means to learn things carefully, slowly, and methodically. When you are learning like this speed will follow as a natural progression. So if you learn something slowly and smoothly it will translate into being quick and doing it correctly. I have applied this to all sorts of different things in life and it has never failed me.
Logged in just to upvote this one, because I’m at a new job and something I struggle with is feeling like I ask too many questions. This was good motivation for me, thanks for sharing.
Your username reminded me of my favorite Sanderson quote.
I still think about it all the time when I’m in a tough spot.
All the knights radiant oath are great too.
Journey before destination.
Does a poem count? Ozymandias has stuck with me forever.
We’ll start a new ancient Egypt, with hookers and booze.
I thought this was some quote from like, Iliad times. Nope, this is Percy Bysshe Shelley. That guy was pretty awesome
My favourite poem; I was just thinking about reading it again, and here we are. Thanks!
In 100 years, nobody will care
Growing old is mandatory, growing up optional.
Murphy’s law is always apllicable, unless you depend on it.
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
Marcus Aurelius
Anyone who appreciates this one and hasn’t read the entirety of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (compiled into book form) really should. Many gems of stoic wisdom therein.
- Cave Johnson, Portal 2
Maybe not words to live by, but certainly a memorable quote.
Maybe they’re not words to live by – if you’re a coward.
Unbelievable. You, [subject name here], must be the pride of [subject hometown here]!
All of his quotes are just great. My favorite:
All these science spheres are made of asbestos all the way. Keeps out the rats. Let us know if you feel a shortness of breath, a persistent dry cough, or your heart-stopping. Because that is not part of the test. That’s asbestos…Worst case scenario, you miss out on a few rounds of Canasta, plus you forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into a calculator, it makes a happy face.
My father, a union organiser: “You can love the company all you like, but the company will never love you back.”
Stood me in good stead down the years.
You’ve got to go through a round of redundancies/layoffs to learn this. No amount of telling some freebie-munching programmer will teach them. Source: I was a freebie-munching programmer.
And the acceptance beyond that is “… and that’s ok, it’s not the company’s job to love you, but don’t for a second be fooled into loyalty”.
Somwhat related quote from my father in law about being a good worker:
“First year, they like you. Second year, they love you. Third year, they just start using you”
That’s only partially true, especially if you think about the definition of ‘company.’
It is completely possible to be in a company that cares about you. Odds are it won’t be a publicly-traded one, though.
Nothing at work is personal, it’s all business. If you believe it’s personal you will get taken advantage by the company.
That’s not too say that there won’t be personal issues at work, just that the company doesn’t care about anything except the business.
In addition, HR isn’t there too protect the employees, they are there to protect the company.
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.”
― Captain Jean-Luc Picard
That’s really rough to accept, but I’ve come to do so.
I still think we should do our best. Nothing hurts more than losing because we didn’t try hard enough.
“The best time to plant a tree is fifty years ago. The second best time is right now” - essentially don’t worry about what you could have done better, or what could have been, make now and the future as good as you can
and
“If you don’t fall off occasionally, you’re not trying hard enough” - originally told to me in the context of learning to windsurf (I still can’t windsurf), but applicable in a lot of areas. This doesn’t mean try to fall off, it means failure is a natural part of growth, not something to be shunned
Good point. How else do you know if you’re doing it right unless you’ve done it wrong before
In 20 years, the only ones to remember all the hard work and long hours are your children.
Oof, this one hit hard for me. I’ve been working a lot of hours lately and I need to start putting my actual life as a priority. Thanks for this.