Milton Glaser talking about his relationship with painter Giorgio Morandi:

"It was Moriandi who taught me about dedication. He showed me the necessity of persistence, and that nothing good is ever easy. And that's because we see nothing at first glance. It's only by really thinking about something that we're able to move ourselves into perceptions that we never knew we had the capacity for."

The author goes on:

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger referred to this as the unconcealing process. He argued, like Glaser, that the reality of things is naturally obscured by the clutter of the world, by all those ideas and sensations that distract the mind. The only way to see through this clutter is to rely on the knife of conscious attention, which can cut away the excess and reveal "the things themselves."

Our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking. This means that the potentially-integratable techno-economic advantages accruing to society from the myriad specializations are not comprehended integratively and therefore are not realized, or they are realized only in negative ways, in new weaponry or the industrial support only of wayfaring.

Nothing seems to be more prominent about human life than its wanting to understand all and put everything together.

But to tear down a factory or revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic thought itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.

115th Psalm:

Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; Eyes they have, but they see not; They have ears, but they hear not; Noses have they, but they smell not; They have hands, but they handle not; Feet have they, but they walk not; Neither speak they through their throat. They that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every on that trusteth in them.

To design is the "build" a structure with an image inside the mind of the recipient. In this case, the materials are not only external stimulation but also massive amounts of memories awakened by stimulation. Designing highlights subtle differences between recalled memories and reality.

Pope Pius XII's concerns about media in the 1950s:

It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of modern society and the stability of its inner life depend in large part on the maintenance of an equilibrium between the strength of the techniques of communication and the capacity of the individual's own reaction.

The "content" of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph. If it is asked, "What is the content of speech?," it is necessary to say, "It is the actual process of thought, which is in itself nonverbal." What we are considering here, however, are the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing processes. For the "message" of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.

This book is pretty great for those who want to learn Obj-C (with no background in C) quickly and already have a background in programming. Aaron does a great job teaching the hard way first so you respect the shortcuts. Probably wise to read this before his Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X.

Referencing a story about two condemned murderers who saw themselves on television moments before a visiting the electric chair:

"This situation is a major feat of modern news technique. Hot spot news with a vengeance. What a thrill these men must have got from being on the inside of a big inside story. Participating in their own audience participation, they were able to share the thrill of the audience that was being thrilled by their imminent death.

This is an illustration of the situation of those in the modern world who contribute mindlessly and automatically to the huge technical panorama which they never raise their eyes to examine. In the following pages various sections of that panorama will be centered for conscious scrutiny."

Great way to start a book.

A short exploration of the history of white and emptiness. You'll probably want to spend some time with this—Hara has some profound statements which require some pondering at times. Definitely worth your afternoon.

"A creative question is a form of expression—it requires no definite answer. That is because it holds countless answers within itself."

"In Roman times, characters were usually carved on stone using sharp tools, so as a result the Roman script has a raised flourish—a "serif"—at the end of each stroke. This can be seen as a visual manifestation of people's appreciation of letters' beauty. Since the carved words were deeply associated with politics and religion, a powerful aura radiated from the delicate structure of letters and their combinations. In short, they were far more than words to be read—their grand and magnificent inscriptions affected the course of human destiny. Even today we bow before the overwhelming power and majestic beauty of the Magna Carta parchment. The "dignity" embedded in its densely marshaled letters represents the authority of the handwritten text.

"Then each part of the book can play its proper role: the front cover conveys a powerful silence; the inside cover the purity of first openings; the title page the texture of new beginnings; while the body of the text sets the words and pictures against a clear background, or whispers "touch me!" to the reader's fingertips.

Cultures live in one of three states. The first state is barbarism. Barbarians believe that the customs of their village are the laws of nature and that anyone who doesn't live the way they live is beneath contempt and requiring redemption or destruction. The third state is decadence. Decadents cynically believe that nothing is better than anything else. If they hold anyone in contempt, it is those who believe in anything. Nothing is worth fighting for.

Civilization is the second and most rare state. Civilized people are able to balance two contradictory thoughts in their minds. They believe that there are truths and that their cultures approximate those truths. At the same time, they hold open in their mind the possibility that they are in error. The combination of belief and skepticism is inherently unstable. Cultures pass through barbarism to civilization and then to decadence, as skepticism undermines self-certainty. Civilized people fight selectively but effectively. Obviously all cultures contain people who are barbaric, civilized, or decadent, but each culture is dominated at different times by one principle.

Meaning is the feeling that we're part of something bigger than ourselves. It's the belief that our actions actions matter beyond our own individual lives. When something is meaningful, it has significance and worth not just to ourselves, or even to our closest friends and family, but to a much larger group: to a community, an organization, or even the entire human species.

Meaning is something we're all looking for more of: more ways to make a difference in the bigger picture, more chances to leave a lasting mark on the world, more moments of awe and wonder at the scale of the projects and communities we're apart of.

How do we get more meaning in our lives? It's actually quite simple. Philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual leaders agree: the single best way to add meaning to our lives is to connect our daily actions to something bigger than ourselves—and the bigger, the better. As Martin Seligman says, "The self is a very poor site for meaning." We can't matter outside of a large-scale social context. "The larger the entity you can attach yourself to," Seligman advices, "the more meaning you can derive."

Any perceptive TV journalist realizes that a news item moved at electronic speeds acquires infinite mass.

At electronic speeds all forms are pushed to the limit of their potential: on the telephone (or on the air) it is not the message that travels at electronic speed. What actually occurs is that the sender is sent, minus a body, and all the old relationships of speaker and audience tend to be erased.

With words we begin to leave traces behind us like breadcrumbs: memories in symbols for others to follow. Ants deploy their pheromones, trails of chemical information; Theseus unwound Ariadne's thread. Now people leave paper trails.

The dead speak to the living, the living to the unborn.

So many great moments already in this book. Here's a few:

Every new medium transforms the nature of human thought. In the long run, history is the story of information becoming aware of itself.

He goes way back to the Greeks and their use of fire beacons in the Trojan War:

The meaning of the message had, of course, to be prearranged, effectively condensed into a single bit. A binary choice, something or nothing: the fire signal meant something, which, just this once, meant "Troy has fallen." To transmit this one bit required immense planning, labor, watchfulness, and firewood. Many years later, lanterns in Old North Church likewise sent Paul Revere a single precious bit, which he carried onward, one binary choice: by land or by sea.

I may have put off reading this book, but I can't think of a more perfect time to have read it.

"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."