Point of View Is Worth 80 IQ Points

--- Alan Kay, quoted passim, confirmed by Quote Investigator, May 2018. It seems to date back to 1982 at the latest.

I first heard him say it in a talk at ATLAS in November 2019 (vimeo, see around time code 41:27), where he says, "The much more interesting ideas didn't come from me but from my reactions to a richer environment "

I suppose this is why creative people congregate in big cities, or at least why big cities (New York, London, LA) are creative.

It also goes to the question of  whether to be a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond; cf. the BFLPE.

Truth ... resides in ... generalizing myths that direct attention to what is common amid diversity by neglecting trivial differences of detail

--- William H. McNeil, via his 2016 NY Times obituary mentioned by Brad Bernthal, quoting a Times op-ed of 28 December, 1981, Make Mine Myth.

Contetxt from the op-ed

Historians' assaults on myth are themselves based on a myth: the faith that facts speak for themselves, that infinite detail somehow organizes itself into meaningful patterns without the intervention of human intelligence, and that historical truth resides in faithful transcription of recorded words and deeds.

...

The trouble with this approach to truth is that it makes the world unintelligible. ...

Truth, in short, does not reside in exact recording of every detail. It never has. Instead, it resides in myth - generalizing myths that direct attention to what is common amid diversity by neglecting trivial differences of detail. Such myths make subsequent experience intelligible and can be acted on. When results conform to expectations, truth has been tested and the mythical formulation gains or retains plausibility. When experience contradicts expectation, it is time to mend the myth, if one can, to look for limiting conditions or overriding patterns that somehow distort its applicability.

every time a Jew and his teacher argue together, they must imagine themselves standing on Mount Sinai with Moses

--- Karen Armstrong, in a CSMonitor interview with Randy Dotinga, 22 November 2019

In context

Scripture was a performative art, such as the intensely emotional and argumentative art of Jewish midrash. They weren’t meekly reading their Bibles silently. There’s also a spiritual experience of imagination. The Talmud says every time a Jew and his teacher argue together, they must imagine themselves standing on Mount Sinai with Moses. Revelation will come to them.

You flip a bunch of microscopic switches really fast and culture pours out

--- Paul Ford (@ftrain), in Why I (Still) Love Tech: In Defense of a Difficult Industry, Wired cover story, Jun 2019

In context

I still love software. . . . [but] I rarely get to build software anymore. I would like to. Something about the interior life of a computer remains infinitely interesting to me; it’s not romantic, but it is a romance. You flip a bunch of microscopic switches really fast and culture pours out.

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should

--- Character Dr Ian Michael in Jurassic Park (clip); screenplay credits: Michael Crichton and David Koepp

You will never displace a feeling with a fact

--- Andrew McAfee, in conversation with Russ Roberts on the EconTalk podcast, Andrew McAfee on More from Less, Oct 14 2019, at about 1:31:25