The new corner store guy just tried to sell me a stale bagel that was covered with mold. When I pointed this out to him he apologized, returned my money, and put the bagel back on the shelf!! The camel's back is now officially broken, (it had been under mounting strain because of a week long absence of chocolate flavored power bars). Looks like I'll be finding myself a new corner store.

I was told the other day that nice and clever are orthogonal. It's sad but true. I won't deny my disappointment (I'm definitely nice), but I will say that nice often counts for much more than clever. What matters is that you enjoy what you do, and this is completely unrelated to how clever or nice you happen to be.

The real value of a tool is often in uses that are totally unimagined by its inventor. Someone creates something, and then someone else discovers a wonderful way to use it differently.

This natural evolution is obviously good for everyone, even the inventor! How ironic then that inventors often stymie change by piling on restrictions and rules to *help* people use their creations correctly, (i.e., only in the ways they can imagine them being used).