No one wants to hear everything that's in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.
Adam GrantRead
I have two rules for a great book: make me think and make me smile.
Interpretation
A great book should provoke thought and bring joy to the reader.
This quote by Adam Grant emphasizes the dual impact that literature can have on its audience. A truly great book not only challenges the readers intellectually, sparking deep thinking and contemplation, but also brings happiness and pleasure, ensuring an enjoyable reading experience. The blend of these two elements is what makes a book memorable and impactful.
In practice
During a book club, when discussing favorite reads.
No one wants to hear everything that's in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.
In the eyes of many people, giving doesn't count unless it's completely selfless. In reality, though, giving isn't sustainable when it's completely selfless.
When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.
We have many identities, and we can't be authentic to them all. The best we can do is be sincere in our efforts to earn the values we claim.
We all have thoughts and feelings that we believe are fundamental to our lives but that are better left unspoken.
You want people who choose to follow because they genuinely believe in ideas, not because they're afraid to be punished if they don't. For startups, there's so much pivoting that's required that if you have a bunch of sheep, you're in bad shape.
There is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display.
I read Carver. Julio Cortázar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me.
Look to the past to help create the future. Look to science and to poetry. Combine innovation and interpretation. We need the best of both. And it is universities that best provide them.
Learning to read, for the brain, is a lot like an amateur ringmaster first learning how to organise a three-ring circus. He wants to begin individually and then synchronise all the performances. It only happens after all the separate acts are learned and practised long and well.
I view it as one of the greatest crimes to shadow the minds of the young with these gloomy superstitions, and with fears of the unknown and the unknowable to poison all their joy in life.
I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.
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