Thoughts of the Day:

There is no such thing as luck. There is only skill, stochasticity, and attempt frequency.

Doing a startup is like playing No-Limit Hold'em: You only ever lose big money on good ideas/hands.

There are times when you just have to pseudo-bluff that A-high inside straight draw after the turn.

Pre-cast gels, like lotteries, are a form of the idiot tax. We need more of these.

There's no such thing as a gauche genius; there are only idiot savants and charmers who have yet to awaken.

One of the hardest and most important things to do as a scientist is to admit that a competitor's technology works better than your own for what you need to do.

Why is it called "hybridization" when two complementary DNA molecules bind to each other? I mean, it's not like in molecular orbitals, where you take an s orbital and a p orbital and get out 2 sp orbitals that look like a cross between the two. In DNA "hybridization," you just get one big lump of both, and the two strands are still pretty distinct entities. It's like mixing a hammer with a sickle and calling it a solution--it really just doesn't work.

It's the symptom of a sick society when its members scorn simplicity and practical usefulness.

Variety is the spice of life, and I'm a man who likes Szechuan food.

Genius wears a mask of idiocy. Overtly play the role of hero too long, and you're bound to be eaten by a dragon.

Life is a cubic equation.. there's always a real solution, but often you get two complex or imaginary ones.

Too many coincidences show the finger of Fate.

Destiny's a fucking porcupine. Trying to embrace it ain't gonna work. You've got to beat it up with a ten-foot pole.

Stubbornness is necessary for greatness.

Beware he who is too humble--a man without pride is a man without morals.

It's not that I'm unaffected by peer pressure; rather it's that there are so few I would consider my peers.

Love is cooperating in that game of prisoner's dilemma when you know she'll defect.

He who is without patriotism has no right to a nationality.

Forming an entrepreneurship team is like finding a party in a MMRPG: There are set classes you need to do anything, but to really rake in the gold, you need everyone on the team to be best at what they do.

The trick to being good at anything just might be to have no shame.

To be successful in science, you have to be smart or hard-working. It's usually easy to tell who is which by seeing who's actually read their advisor's thesis.

Christopher Columbus didn't discover the New World by asking the Queen of Spain for a fishing boat.

Don't hate your enemies; pity them.

Wonder not at the past and dream not of the future, but rather live in the present.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Each artist must invent his own form of art; there is little success and no glory in being a forger.

Never miss an opportunity, for time never repeats itself.

I had the good luck of having bad luck at a time when I could afford it.

Never regret; never give up. Death is the only end, and until then every dream, no matter how outlandish, may yet be fulfilled.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou can deceive anyone.

The path to victory is fraught with vice.

If you're not failing at least two times out of three, then you're not doing good science.

All heroes are masochists; sane people work the fields or Seven-Elevens and enjoy their happy, unambitious lives.

Caltech is Neverland. No one ever grows old; no one every grows up.

I pity Emperors who play chess--winning is damn boring when you never lose.

I don't think chivalry is dead; I think it's become undead.

You cease being smart the day you stop listening to those who call you dumb.

Know enough of every field so that you can recognize a genius when you meet one.

A bargain isn't a bargain if it stays a bargain forever.

Anything that seems a bit too much of a coincidence probably is.

Doing DNA sequence design is like bribing Chinese officials--you never know how much to put in and once in a very rare while it's not even necessary in the first place.