"The universal line of distinction between the strong and the weak is one persists, while the other hesitates, falters, trifles, and at last collapses or caves in." - Edwin Whipple "We had nonbelievers all along the way. I have one thing to say to those nonbelievers: Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion." Rudy T Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world. Arthur Schopenhauer You think a man can change his destiny? I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed to him. Last Samurai The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free. I say, evolve and let the chips fall as they may. It is only after you've lost everything that you are free to do anything. Fight Club In the end gentlemen, it is eminently more useful to destroy an enemy's spirit than it is to destroy an enemy's body. Do the one, and the other becomes a vastly less complicated task. Vertical Run In the long run, we are all dead. John Keynes "Whatever happened, it happened for good. What is happening, is also happening for good. Whatever will happen, that too will be for good. What have you lost for which you weep? What did you bring with you, which you have lost? What did you produce, which has perished? You did not bring anything when you were born. Whatever you have, you have received from Him. Whatever you will give, you will give to Him. You came empty handed and you will go the same way. Whatever is yours today, it was somebody else's yesterday And it will be somebody else's tomorrow. The change is the law of universe." Bhagavad Gita You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. Fight Club It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those code and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours. Ayn Rand All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by the night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." That which submits rules. The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it. If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets. Dune, Frank Herbert No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself. Bid farewell to what goes, and greet what comes. For what comes cannot be denied, and what goes cannot be detained. Chuang Tzu There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. Maya Angelou Rock stars... is there anything they don't know? Homer Simpson To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Bertrand Russell When I lie on the beach there naked, which I do sometimes, and I feel the wind coming over me and I see the stars up above and I am looking into this very deep, indescribable night, it is something that escapes my vocabulary to describe. Then I think: 'God, I have no importance. Whatever I do or don't do, or what anybody does, is not more important than the grains of sand that I am lying on, or the coconut that I am using for my pillow.' So I really don't think in the long sense. Marlon Brando Without vision, the people perish. So we need our shimmering, prizes, goals to motivate ourselves, but the life is never in the prize. The living part, the fun part, is all in the wrangling. Those dark cliffs looming ahead -- that is the height of your achievement. We need to leap into another way of life. The technical impetus is here. We are changing, but to what end? The question we must face is: what do we want? We should want to abandon that which has no future. We should blow right through mere sustainability. We should desire a world of enhancement. That is what should come next. We should want to expand the options of those who will follow us. We don't need more dead clutter to entomb in landfills. We need more options. Bruce Sterling, SIGGRAPH 2004. Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared. Tupac Shakur "Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." - Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll So the lesson of Leccan is, living by your wants will never make you happy. What it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideas and ideals, and not to measure your life by what you've attained in terms of your desires, but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self sacrifice. Because in the end, the only way that we can measure the significance of our own lives, is by valuing the lives of others. David Gale, Life of David Gale Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives. Subroto Bagchi, MindTree Consulting If you practice day and night in the above Ichi school strategy, your spirit will naturally broaden. This is large scale strategy and the strategy of hand to hand combat propagated in the world. This is recorded for the first time in the five books of Ground, Water, Fire, Tradition (Wind), and Void. This is the Way for men who want to learn my strategy: 1. Do not think dishonestly 2. The Way is in training. 3. Become aquainted with every art. 4. Know the Ways of all professions. 5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. 6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. 7. Pay attention even to trifles. 8. Do nothing which is of no use. When you embark upon something, before you start fix your intention on the Four Oaths and put selfishness behind you. Then you cannot fail. The Four Oaths: Never be late with respect the Way of the Warrior. Be useful to the lord. Be respectful to your parents. Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of man. - A Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Mushashi "Success is something to shadowbox with, not embrace." Robert Redford "What are you rebelling against, Johnny?" "Whaddya got?" The Wild One. "We live, as we dream - alone..." Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Apu: Today, I am no longer an Indian living in America. I am an Indian-American. Lisa: You know, in a way, all Americans are immigrants. Except, of course Native Americans. Homer: Yeah, Native Americans like us. Lisa: No, I mean American Indians. Apu: Like me. Calvin: "Math is not a science. It's a religion. Here is a bunch of numbers, and by some magic they become another bunch of numbers. You either believe it, or you don't. As a math atheist, I demand being freed of this." Hobbes: "In public school, no less. Call a lawyer." I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now. The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it. Omar Khayyam A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long Some Maxims: 1. Detractors of humanity are wrong. Idealists are equally so. The average man is neither so good nor so bad as we take him to be. But this mediocrity is so terribly hard to endure. 2. The strength of mediocre people lies in the fact that they are so sublimely unconscious of their own shortcomings. 3. Nowadays anthropologists are almost unanimous that all the existing races of men belong to the same species - Homo sapiens. Yet there is a greater gulf between an Einstein and an honest clerk than there is between an honest clerk and a chimpanzee. 4. The bourgeoisie are always ready to believe any gossip about the higher set, and they are overjoyed when the law-courts let loose a really first-class scandal. Conscious of their inferiority in worldly goods, education, culture, manners, they must soothe their wounded self-love by an assumption of superiority in morals. But this is done in perfect good faith and sincerity. 5. Anatomists tell us that at the age of twenty-five or so, our bones harden and we cease to grow in body. Though there are no bones in our brain, I should think something similar happens to our mind at the same time. Only a few fortunate ones stand as oases in the forbidding desert of middle-aged stupidity. 6. I have seen the gradual petrification of a mind. I have also seen something infinitely worse - the shadow of mental inertness creep upon the face, robbing the eyes of their brightness, thickening the skin, and marking the low forehead with deep horizontal wrinkles. 7. In nine cases out of ten the movements, and the looks of a dog betray intelligence. In nine cases out of ten a man's do not. Control over the facial muscles has made man look more stupid than he really is. 8. When you are so blind as to see nothing but the groove in which you are turning your neighbours will call you a practical man. 9. It is only foolish young men who are prepared to die and to live for an ideal. Heaven or money, people above the age of forty will not barter their souls for less. 10. The distinction between a misanthrope and a moralist: A misanthrope despairs of himself as well as of his fellowmen; a moralist despairs of his fellowmen only. 11. Crown of sorrow: We give our respect to one whom melancholy has marked for her own. But a man who has allowed his leg to be caught in a sentimental trap and is limping through life for the benefit of his fellowmen, is a ludicrous sight, and most of the sorrow of this world is of this brand. 12. Unquestioning complacency: facile pessimism; chastened hope and unrebelliousness; a stern, almost exultant despair - these are the four stages in a man's maturing outlook on life. Thy Hand, Great Anarch!, Nirad C Chaudhuri The history of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?', the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?'. Hitchiker's Guide.., Douglas Adams Pay no attention to what the critics say. No statue has ever been erected to a critic. Jean Sibelius Everyone always remembers Jordan's game-winning shots, but few remember that he missed a lot of them too. The point was that he not only wanted to take the final shot, he needed to. His competitiveness was so fierce that nothing would stop him from doing whatever it took to win the game. And if he did miss the shot, he would never get down. He would simply pick himself up and jump at the chance to take the next game-winner. Steve Kerr "If an elderly respected expert in a given field tells you that something can be done he is almost certainly right. If an elderly respected expert in a given field tells you that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong." Heinlein, Time Enough For Love "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Valis, Philip Dick "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi There's an old proverb that says just about whatever you want it to. A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire "Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of... anything!" - from movie Chinatown "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien. "Boy, I've got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals." - Butch Cassidy "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, but eventually it will go away and something else will take its place. If I quit, it stays with me forever." - Lance Armstrong, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. In the warrior's code, there's no surrender, Though his body says stop, his spirit cries - Never. - Burning heart, Rocky Soundtrack "Yeah, I'm a great quitter. It's one of the few things I do well. I come form a long line of quitters. My father was a quitter, my grandfather was a quitter... I was raised to give up." - George Costanza, Seinfeld. "Winning is not a sometimes thing. You don't do things right some of the time. You do things right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." - Vince Lombardi Homer: [reading screen] "To Start Press Any Key". Where's the ANY key? I see Esk (ESC), Catarl (CTRL), and pig-up [PGUP]. There doesn't seem to be ANY key. Woo! All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I'll order a TAB. [presses the TAB key] The best way to predict the future is to invent it. - Alan Kay Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics. - G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; - Rabindranath Tagore's vision of India, in Gitanjali. We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes. - Ralph Waldo Emerson We all want power, we all want success, but the ultimate reward is the simple joy of understanding. Paul Krugman "Delays have dangerous ends." - Will Shakespeare HMS ULYSSES Alistair Maclean Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. ALFRED LORD TENNYSON Even in the relatively clear spells, she was difficult to locate. She lacked solidity, substance, definition of outline. She had a curious air of impermanence, of volatility. An illusion, of course, but an illusion that accorded well with a legend - for a legend the Ulysses had become in her own brief lifetime. She was known and cherished by the merchant seamen, by the men who sailed the bitter seas of the North, from St. John's to Archangel, from the Shetlands to Jan Mayen, from Greenland to far reaches of Spitzenbergen, remote on the edge of the world. Where there was danger, where there was death, there you might look to find the Ulysses, materialising wraith like from a fog-bank, or just as miraculously, being there when the bleak twilight of the Arctic dawn brought with it only the threat, at times almost the certainity, of never seeing the next. A strange hush, a supernatural silence, the wordless understanding that so rarely touches mankind: the veil lifts and drops again and a man can never remember what he has seen but knows that he has seen something and that nothing will ever be quite the same again. Seldom, all too seldom it comes: a sunset of surpassing loveliness, a fragment from some great symphony, the terrible stillness which falls over the huge rings of Madrid and Barcelona as the sword of the greatest of the matadors sinks inevitably home. And the Spaniards have a word for it - the moment of truth. But, for all this, words are useless things, pale shadows of reality. Some things lie beyond the knowledge and experience of the majority of mankind, and here imagination finds itself in a world unknown. At 1030, in position, on time, the Ulysses rendezvoused with the convoy from Halifax. "You misunderstand me, sir." There was no anger, the voice was a fading murmur, they had to strain to hear his words. "The master of Vytura - I can tell you his name. It's Ralston. Captain Michael Ralston. He was my father." VERTICAL RUN Joseph Garber "Though fraud in all other actions be odious, yet in matters of war it is laudable and glorius, and he who overcomes his enemies by stratagem, is as much to be praised as he who overcomes them by force" - Machiavelli 'This one moment has been the finest in his life, the finest that he shall ever experience, and down all his days he will remember it with longing. He knows this, and this knowledge makes him sad ..' 'Gentlemen, would you like to know what we call a man who panics under fire ? Let me tell you. Gentlemen, the technical term for a man who panics under fire is `target`.' "Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable beast of prey." "In the end, gentlemen, it is in the mind that the game is played, and it is in the mind that it is either lost or won." GENERAL'S DAUGHTER Nelson DeMille 'Those who are fighting a monster should see to it that in the process they don't become a monster. And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss looks into you'. Friedrich Nietzsche PLUM ISLAND Nelson DeMille That's life. The meaning of life has not much to do with good and evil, right or wrong, duty, honour, country, or any of that. It has to do with cutting the right deal. PUPPETS ON A CHAIN 'He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.' Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. Voltaire UNFORGIVEN 2 (Metallica) What I've felt, what I've known Sick and tired, I stand alone Could you be there, 'Coz I'm the one who waits for you Or are you unforgiven too? GLADIATOR 'Death smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back.' FOUNTAINHEAD Every loneliness is a pinnacle. "Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose..." "The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work, done my way." "Rules?" said Roark. "Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose..." ATLAS SHRUGGED Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong. HARRY POTTER - CHAMBER OF SECRETS 'It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.' FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (Metallica) Blackened roar, massive roar fills the crumbling sky Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry Stranger now are his eyes to this mystery He hears the silence - so loud Crack of dawn, all is gone Except the will to be Now they see what will be, blinded eyes to see. FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE Alistair MacLean "Force 10?" Mallory said politely. "The code name for your operation." "Why that particular name?" Andrea asked. "Why not? Ever heard of any code name that had any bearing on the operation on hand. It's the whole essence of it, man." "It wouldn't, of course," Mallory said woodenly, "have anything to do with a frontal attack on something, a storming of some vital place." He observerd Jansen's total lack of reaction and went on in the same tone: "On the Beaufort scale, Force 10 means a storm." "And what about this gifted individual?" Lazlo asked curiously. "Just this." Vukalovic was suddenly very serious, even sombre. "When all things are lost and there is no hope left, there is always, somewhere in the world, one man you can turn to. There may be only that one man. More often than not there IS only that one man. But that one man is always there." He paused reflectively. "Or so they say." GOLD COAST Nelson Demille A man lives not only his personal life as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries. Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction. Matthew 7:13 The public be damned. William Henry Vanderbilt Reply to newspaper, 1882. WHEREVER I MAY ROAM (Metallica) Carved upon my stone, My body lie - but still I roam. DAMAGE INC (Metallica) Fuck it all and fucking no regrets, Never happy endings on these dark sets. I bite my tongue, trying not to shoot back, No compromise, my heart won't pump the other way. - Shoot me again (Metallica) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, For I Am The Meanest Mother Fucker in the valley. (Vietnam) "Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." -Mark Twain When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds. Bhagavad Gita "Do you know how much mental energy I expend just trying to picture women naked?" George Costanza, Seinfeld. Bugs are by far the largest and most successful class of entity, with nearly a million known species. In this respect they outnumber all the other known creatures about four to one. -Professor Snope's Encyclopedia of Animal Life Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -George Santayana "They can talk about me like they want to, but, um, I got my money ... so matter what you all say, Mike black, but Mike rich!" --Michael Irvin "I don't want to be remembered, I want to be forgotten." --George Costanza "My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring, we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds. Pretty standard, really." --Dr. Evil "All I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood." --Rocky Balboa Rocky: "Hey Adrian, what are you doing say for the next 30-40 years ?" Adrian: "Why Rocky ?" Rocky: "I was wondering if you would very much mind marrying me." "They hate me because they ain't me!" -Busta Rhymes "That's what I love about these high school girls, man... I get older, they stay the same age." --David Wooderson "Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever." --Shane Falco "I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it." --Jack Handey "The accusation that Pedro Guerrero could finance and underwrite a drug deal is ludicrous! He doesn't have the acumen or the ability to finance anything more complicated than lunch." --Pedro's attorney "Education: the ability to describe a beautiful woman without using your hands." --Anonymous "Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. " --Andy Dufrense "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man. " --Nietzsche "Hope clouds observation." --Dune, Frank Herbert "Everybody has a plan until they get hit." --Mike Tyson "Maybe the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason." --Jerry Seinfeld "You're all playin' for second place." --Larry Bird "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." --Dante Cosmo Kramer: - "Giddyup" - "Yoyoma" - "Wrong Mujumbo" - "Hoochie mama" - "Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?" Kramer breaking up with his girlfriend: Kramer: "I must have been out of my mind. Look at you. Why don't you do something with your life? Sit around here all day, you contribute nothing to society. You're just taking up space. How can I be with someone like you? I wouldn't respect myself. " Emily, I have a little confession to make. I really am a horse doctor, but marry me and I'll never look at any other horse. Hackenbush, A day at the races. Legend has it that when someone remarked to Voltaire, "Life is hard," he retorted, "compared to what?." ----------- Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo. You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheatfields and mountain passes, and orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding." You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer. There is no "other world." I only know what I've experienced. You must be hallucinating. Rumi ----------- I know you don't wanna hear me cryin' An I know you don't wanna hear me deny That your satisfaction lies in your illusions But your delusions are yours and not mine We take for granted we know the whole story We judge a book by its cover And read what we want Between selected lines Don't hail me An don't idolize the ink Or I've failed in my intentions Can you find the missing link Your only validation is living your own life Vicarious existence is a fucking waste of time So I send this song to the offended I said what I meant and I've never pretended As so many others do intending just to please If I damned your point of view Could you turn the other cheek ----------- An apple a day makes 365 a year. 1. Explain your idea to a kid 2. Remember: If you don't exceed you authority at least once a week, you probably aren't doing your job. 3. Have lunch with a physicist. Or don't. 4. Demo your work to someone who hasn't seen it before. 5. Take a long, hot shower. (If you don't get any new ideas, atleast you'll be clean.) 6. Go backpacking. 7. Go to a seminar outside your field of expertise. 8. Paint. A picture...the house..it doesn't much matter. 9. Read works from someone who changed the face of your field. 10. Talk with someone who's been around long enough to know how to skirt the system. 11. Write your obituary. (What will you be known for?) 12. Teach a class. Kindergarten or college - it doesn't really matter. 13. Come in early - enjoy the quiet. 14. Have an argument. 15. Spend a whole day walking around the lab. 16. Invite comment from a colleague who has a completely different opinion. Listen carefully. 17. If you don't want to read the book, then write it. 18. Work the problem. Write down everything that's wrong, and then tackle each thing one ta a time until you're done. 19. Admit to your boss that you're stuck. See what ideas strike you during this moment of confession. 20. Jot down everything you've learned so far about your project - good and bad. Reflect. 21. Forget the plan. Build a prototype. 22. For a day, switch places with your boss. 23. Go for a walk and meet someone new. Then go see what's going on in heir lab. 24. Make your own second-best idea better than your first. 25. Leave the office. Sit with ust a pencil and a pad of paper. See what happens. 26. GET your hands dirty. 27. Go for a bike ride. 28. Buy a magaziene you've never seen and reawd it cover to cover. 29. Cruise a competitor's website. 30. Reread your own published work to remind yourself that you really CAN do this. 31. Run the problme through your head again and agiain like a movie. Until it's solved. 32. Switch to a different project. 33. Make your best ideas compete for space in your brain. 34. Sketch your problem out on somone else's whiteboard. 35. Shut te door. Practce shooting runbber bands at targets in your office. 36. Realize that even Nobel laureates get stuck. Daily. 37. Focus on the hotshot in some start-up who wants to beat you to hte market. Now ge tback to work. 38. As Churchill said: "Never give up. Never give up. Never give up." 39. Put it into action. You can always stop - or upgrade - later. 40. Brush your teeth. 41. brainstorm with someone 10 years older and someone 10 years yunger. 42. Join a sales rep on a customer call. 43. Reread your favourite book. From childhood. 44. Visit a third-gradfe class and let the kids lecture YOU about the future.