“All the excitement about all things new obscures the fact that most new ideas are bad and most old ideas are good.  It’s a Darwinian principle: the death rate of new products and companies is dramatically higher than of old ones.”
– Robert Sutton:

“First and foremost, a start-up puts you on an emotional rollercoaster unlike anything you have ever experienced. You flip rapidly from day-to-day – one where you are euphorically convinced you are going to own the world, to a day in which doom seems only weeks away and you feel completely ruined, and back again. Over and over and over. And I’m talking about what happens to stable entrepreneurs. There is so much uncertainty and so much risk around practically everything you are doing. The level of stress that you’re under generally will magnify things to incredible highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude. Sound like fun?”

– Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape

“The year is going, let him go; ring out the false, ring in the true.”
– Alfred Lord Tennyson

When I was a junior in high school, AP US History and jazz band were held at the same time. As a result, I can play a mean bebop line, but I have a totally remedial understanding of US history.

Of course, as an avid devourer of information, I’ve filled in random patches along the way – a book here, a documentary there, hours of wikipedia trolling in between.

Often enough, my best source of information is to trace backwards from a quote. Find something interesting said, and odds are the person who said it was interesting too. Which is why, in the wake of yesterday’s post, I got curious about George Jean Nathan.

A renowned theater critic, and an eminently quotable one, he also put forth perhaps the best set of life instruction I’ve yet come across:

My code of life and conduct is simply this: work hard, play to the allowable limit, disregard equally the good and bad opinion of others, never do a friend a dirty trick, eat and drink what you feel like when you feel like, never grow indignant over anything, trust to tobacco for calm and serenity, bathe twice a day . . . learn to play at least one musical instrument and then play it only in private, never allow one’s self even a passing thought of death, never contradict anyone or seek to prove anything to anyone unless one gets paid for it in cold, hard coin, live the moment to the utmost of its possibilities, treat one’s enemies with polite inconsideration, avoid persons who are chronically in need, and be satisfied with life always but never with one’s self.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
– Thomas Edison

Things should be quieting down on my end shortly, which means time again for blogging. Stay posted.

To all my goyish readers, merry Christmas!

And for those readers who, like me, will be spending tomorrow watching movies and eating Chinese food, a timeless classic:

Twas the night before Chanukah,
boychicks and maidels
Not a sound could be heard,
not even the draidels.

The Menorah was set on the chimney, alight
In the kitchen the Bubba hut gechapt a bite.
Salami, pastrami, a glessala tay
And zayerah pickles with bagels, oy vay!

Gezunt and geschmack, the kinderlech felt
While dreaming of tagelach and Chanukah gelt.
The clock on the mantlepiece away was tickin’
And Bubba was serving a schtickala chicken.

A tumult arose like a thousand brauches,
Santa had fallen and broken his tuches.
I put on my slippers, eins, tsvay, drei,
While Bubba was now on the herring and rye.

I grabbed for my bathrobe and buttoned my gotkes
While Bubba was busy devouring the latkes.
To the window I ran and to my surprise
A little red yarmulka greeted my eyes.

Then he got to the door and saw the Menorah,
“Yiddishe kinder,” he said, “Kenehora.
I thought I was in a goyisha hoise,
But as long as I’m here, I’ll leave a few toys.”

With much gesshray, I asked, “Du bist a Yid?”
“Avada, mein numen is Schloimey Claus, kid.”
“Come into the kitchen, I’ll get you a dish,
A guppell, a schtickala fish.”

With smacks of delight, he started his fressen,
Chopped liver, knaidlach and kreplah gegessen.
Along with his meal, he had a few schnapps,
When it came to eating, this boy was the tops.

He asked for some knishes with pepper and salt,
But they were so hot, he yelled “Oy Gevalt.”
Unbuttoning his haizen, he rose from the tisch,
And said, “Your Kosher essen is simply delish.”

As he went to the door, he said “I’ll see you later,
I’ll be back next Pesach, in time for the Seder.”
More rapid than eagles his prancers they came,
As he whistled and shourted and called them by name:

“Now Izzy, now Morris, now Yitzak, now Sammy,
Now Irving and Maxie, and Moishe and Mannie.”
He gave a gesshray as he drove out of sight:
“Gooten Yontiv to all, and to all a good night.”

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
– William Blak

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
– Marcel Proust

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.”
– Woody Allen

“Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, bear ‘t that the opposed may beware of thee.”
– Polonius, to his son; Shakespeare’s Hamlet