"When those far removed from the creation of wealth -- undergraduates, reporters, politicians -- hear that the richest 5% of the people have half the total wealth, they tend to think injustice! An experienced programmer would be more likely to think is that all? The top 5% of programmers probably write 99% of the good software."
"Theres no switch inside you [high school students] that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age."
"One thing that leads us astray here is that the selector seems to be in a position of power. That makes him seem like a judge. If you regard someone judging you as a customer instead of a judge, the expectation of fairness goes away. The author of a good novel wouldnt complain that readers were unfair for preferring a potboiler with a racy cover. Stupid, perhaps, but not unfair."
"The first type of judgement is the type where judging you is the end goal... But in fact there is a second much larger class of judgements where judging you is only a means to something else."
"The more you realize that most judgements are greatly influenced by random, extraneous factors—that most people judging you are more like a fickle novel buyer than a wise and perceptive magistrate—the more you realize you can do things to influence the outcome."
"If youd asked me as a kid how rich people became poor, Id have said by spending all their money. Thats how it happens in books and movies, because thats the colorful way to do it. But in fact the way most fortunes are lost is not through excessive expenditure, but through bad investments."
"If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, Id say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You [high school students] dont need to be in a rush to choose your lifes work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do."