Would I have been happier? Maybe. But then, happiness was overrated.

Greg Egan

Categorized in : Has Beens Overrated

You know what they say the modern version of Pascal's Wager is? Sucking up to as many Transhumanists as possible, just in case one of them turns into God.

pascal wagers modern

No one grows up. That's one of the sickest lies they ever tell you. People change. People compromise. People get stranded in situations they don't want to be in… and they make the best of it. But don't try to tell me it's some kind of… glorious preordained ascent into emotional maturity. It's not.

growing-up maturity lying

Widespread caffeine use explains a lot about the twentieth century.

century society use

For there is a truth which cannot be bought or sold, imposed by force, resisted or escaped.

force

Being rewarded for anything other than the quality of their work is the fastest way to screw-up a writer-and it isn't only new ones who suffer from that.

screw-ups quality suffering

Screw every known human culture.

screws humans culture

I was six years old when my parents told me that there was a small, dark jewel inside my skull, learning to be me.

jewels dark years

On his eighteenth day in the tiger cage, Robert Stoney began to lose hope of emerging unscathed.

emerging tigers cages

The Universe may be stranger than we can imagine, but it's going to have a tough time outdoing Egan.

tough-times stranger may

Pop science goes flying off in all kinds of fashionable directions, and it often drags a lot of SF writers with it. I've been led astray like that myself at times.

drag flying kind

I admire David Lynch so much, and I think he made some bad decisions with Lost Highway.

decision lost thinking

I think new writers everywhere need opportunities to get published.

opportunity needs thinking

I'm rarely grabbed by anything the way I was when I was 10 years younger. About the only relatively new artists whose albums I own are Beck, and They Might Be Giants.

giants artist years

I've been taking longer to write stories lately.

stories writing

Everyone here would die for the sake of truth. Everyone here lies constantly for the tiniest chance of personal gain. This is what it means to be a scientist.

sake mean lying

Nobody wants to spend eternity alone.

eternity want

No, that’s journalism. The truth is whatever you can’t escape.

truth-is journalism

Fandom is about fandom, it's a great big social club.

fandoms clubs social

It was almost noon when the plane touched down at the Triad airport on the outskirts of Greensboro. There was a hire car waiting for me; I waved my notepad at the dashboard to transmit my profile, then waited as the seating and controls rearranged themselves slightly, piezoelectric actuators humming. As I started to reverse out of the parking bay, the stereo began a soothing improvisation, flashing up a deadpan title: Music for Leaving Airports 11 June 2008.

airports car june

If we spend all our time gazing at the wonders ahead without remembering where we're standing right now, we're going to trip and fall flat on our face, over and over again.

gazing faces fall