"Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving free men."
He's talking about how ambition can threaten democracy. I think its a bit disingenuous to describe this as something revealing about the man himself. Unless you were saying that emphasizing with this is itself revealing?
We built Jupiter, a free iPhone app, to be the best way to read and highlight the classic books. We are posting here because we thought some of you might enjoy using it.
We have read many classics--Aurelius, Shakespeare, Emerson, Carlyle, Macaulay, etc.--and love to highlight our favorite parts; however, it's always been difficult to go back and review our highlights because they've been strewn across various print and Kindle versions. Now, with Jupiter, we love having all of highlights in one place, we love being able to search them easily.
We also make it possible to highlight in the browser. And when you create a highlight, you can get a magic link to it to share with your friends. Here is an example from a P.T. Barnum book, which was posted on HN at one point:
"When a man's undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once."
Of, if you are in a political debate, why not throw down a link to the Bill of Rights?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Of Churchill's work, I found Savrola, a novel he wrote at 24, to be the among most revealing . . .
"Was it worth it? The struggle, the labour, the constant rush of affairs, the sacrifice of so many things that make life easy, or pleasant—for what? A people's good! That, he could not disguise from himself, was rather the direction than the cause of his efforts. Ambition was the motive force, and he was powerless to resist it."
"Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances: It was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or, it was so then, and another day it would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect."
And I might add, Smart men believe in luck, believe luck is probabilistic, and believe their actions can significantly alter the probabilities, even if they can't guarantee an outcome.
Any Joyce or Wells lovers here may like Jupiter, an app my team built. We are clearly biased, but we think that Jupiter is the best way to read the classics.
It allows you to highlight your favorite parts, and share magic links like this one to a great line from Dubliners:
https://jupiter.ai/books/Q9bx/?hl=Oze
As expected, the reading experience is great in the iPhone app and necessarily not great in the browser.
Jupiter Technologies Corp. | Chicago, IL | Full-Time and Fall/Winter Internships | Onsite
Early stage stealth startup seeks extremely-talented founding engineers to help build a new gateway to the internet. First version launching soon. Founder has a demonstrably strong track record in perhaps the most competitive quantitative field there is, and, in his new field, he expects to win.
You will be working from a small office in Lincoln Park, right by the zoo and park.
Looking for a winner. Someone with high standards, high ambition, and the judgement to know what’s important and what’s not. Track record and attitude much more important than pedigree. The more experience building world-class software the better, but junior candidates will also be considered.
Technologies: Kotlin, Swift, Typescript, and AWS.
Also hiring software-engineering interns, in particular for Fall and Winter. You will work hard and learn a lot. It is our purpose that, by the end of your time at Jupiter, you will have become an excellent young programmer.
Love of language, books, and natural language processing all plusses.
Email resume to austin@jupiter.ai. Next step is phone screen and then an interview at office.
Jupiter Technologies Corp. | Chicago, IL | Full-Time and Fall/Winter/Summer Internships | Onsite
Early stage stealth startup seeks extremely-talented founding engineers to help build a new gateway to the internet. First version launching soon. Founder has a demonstrably strong track record in perhaps the most competitive quantitative field there is, and, in his new field, he expects to win.
You will be working from a small office in Lincoln Park, right by the zoo and park.
Looking for a winner. Someone with high standards, high ambition, and the judgement to know what’s important and what’s not. Track record and attitude much more important than pedigree. The more experience building world-class software the better, but junior candidates will also be considered.
Technologies: Kotlin, Swift, Typescript, and AWS.
Also hiring software-engineering interns year-round. You will work hard and learn a lot. It is our purpose that, by the end of your time at Jupiter, you will have become an excellent young programmer.
Love of language, books, and natural language processing all plusses.
Email resume to austin@jupiter.ai. Next step is phone screen and then an interview at office.
Jupiter Technologies Corp. | Chicago, IL | Full-Time and Internships | Onsite
Early stage stealth startup seeks extremely-talented founding engineer to help build a new gateway to the internet. Founder has a demonstrably strong track record in perhaps the most competitive quantitative field there is, and, in his new field, he expects to win.
You will be working from a small office in Lincoln Park, right by the zoo and park.
Looking for a winner. Someone with high standards, high ambition, and the judgement to know what’s important and what’s not. Track record and attitude much more important than pedigree. The more experience building world-class software the better, but junior candidates will also be considered.
Technologies: Java, Kotlin, Swift, a bit of JavaScript, and AWS.
Also hiring software-engineering interns year-round. You will work hard and learn a lot. It is our purpose that, by the end of your time at Jupiter, you will have become an excellent young programmer.
Email resume to austin@jupiter.ai. Next step is phone screen and then an interview at office.
Jupiter Technologies Corp. | Chicago, IL | Full-Time and Internships | Onsite
Early stage stealth startup seeks extremely-talented founding engineer to help build a new gateway to the internet. Founder has a demonstrably strong track record in perhaps the most competitive quantitative field there is, and, in his new field, he expects to win. Hours will be longer than you would work elsewhere, and, for a period, cash pay, while sufficient, will be lower than you could get elsewhere. Equity percentage, meaning, control, responsibility, opportunity, learning, and power will all be much better than you could get elsewhere.
You would be working from a small office in Lincoln Park, right by the zoo and park.
Looking for a winner. Someone with high standards, high ambition, and the judgement to know what’s important and what’s not. Track record and attitude much more important than pedigree. The more experience building world-class software the better, but junior candidates will also be considered.
Technologies: Java, Kotlin, Swift, a bit of JavaScript, and AWS.
Also hiring summer software-engineering interns. You will work hard and learn a lot.
Email resume to austin@jupiter.ai. Next step is phone screen and then an interview at office.
"Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving free men."
In context: https://jupiter.ai/books/ED2g/?hl=BML