...mediocre people find their way into positions of authority...because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think.

We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail.

I'm convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does.

[Norden] said, with the Mark 15 Norden bombsight, he could drop a bomb into a pickle barrel at 20,000 feet.

I would say first of all, anyone who wants to challenge the status quo always gets that response. Ninety percent of the time, that's just bull. That's just the way in which people choose to prop up their own privilege or their own particular position. So mostly I shrug it off.

There are lots of issues more important than where billionaires donate their money.

A radical and transformative thought goes nowhere without the willingness to challenge convention.