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The system selects for crazy

It's profitable to be unconventional. There's a minimal penalty for being wrong or disruptive and a high upside if you're right and disruptive in the right way. So it stands to reason that the loudest voices in today's society are also our most chaotic and volatile.

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

— Steve Jobs, 1997

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The system selects for crazy

It's profitable to be unconventional. There's a minimal penalty for being wrong or disruptive and a high upside if you're right and disruptive in the right way. So it stands to reason that the loudest voices in today's society are also our most chaotic and volatile.

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

— Steve Jobs, 1997

Updated continuously — Latest commit on
11.23.23