This is a rebuttal to the oft-repeated notion that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I’m going to make the somewhat scandalous point that no, it is in fact what you know. Connections are great. But they’re worthless without certain prerequisites in the skill department. I’m going to journey through some cliches to prove my case. Sure, it can be argued that if Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t met…
Today’s post is inspired by one of my greatest heroes. He wasn’t a perfect man - he shot his neighbor’s dog just because it snapped at him once (his father had just died and he was a bit angry). But he was a passionate, vigorous man, and it’s on this aspect of his life I’m going to focus today. But first, he says it best himself. It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the…
She pulled in the entirety of the remaining ruby, then visualized scattering the coalesced energy of the ruby into as many individual splinters as she could, shooting them out from her in every direction before guiding them to arc towards Elvir, surrounding him on all sides with darts of blazing energy. Casually, Elvir raised a hand and a tiny shield of ruby flicked into existence, then spun…
When this was complete, she aimed the spear at the wall, and let loose. The spear emerged from her and slammed into the wall with a deafening crash, pelting them all with painful bullets of water, and eliciting groans from Ardin and Tan, and even a low rumble from Elvir. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a huge cavity where the water had pierced the wall, with debris scattered all around…
“I wasn’t sure you were actually coming back. Thank you, Jo.” Tan came up and patted her on the shoulder too. “Yeah. Thanks for coming back. I, unlike Ardin, don’t hold much optimisim that we’ll be harnessing the Heartstone, or anything close to it, anytime soon, so I’m real glad we’ll have you along for the journey.” Jo laughed nervously. “Well, I don’t know if I’ll be able to harness any stone…
The first thing she noticed was that her belongings did not, unfortunately, appear to make the trip with her. Indeed, she was naked besides the blanket covering her. She looked over and saw that there was a change of clothes lying next to her on the bed. The clothing was simple and plain, similar to what she had seen Ardin and Tan wearing. She put it on in a hurry, terrified of the off chance that…
Five hours later, she woke up again, this time feeling infinitely better. A quick glance at the clock showed it was about half an hour after noon. Perfect. Time to pack up and get ready. She grabbed her bag and dumped out the contents. She had no idea if she would be able to bring anything with her, and had forgotten to ask, but still figured it couldn’t hurt to be prepared. She thought for a…
Elvir pulled another stone from his stash, which looked remarkably similar, if not near identical, to the one he had previously used to show them Tach’s destruction. Soon, this stone glowed and formed an image as well. This time, however, the image was one Jo was well familiar with. “Is that…The Bean in Chicago? Really?” Jo stared at the image, which unmistakably did depict the iconic massive…
Ardin interrupted, now. “Hold on. Why should we just believe everything you’ve told us? It sounds like a nice story and all, but I have no idea if you just made all of that up on the spot to use us for your own purposes. I’ve never heard of any of this before. What are you getting out of this whole situation? If what you said is true, I want this man dead and will stop at nothing to make it…
“I had hoped that that would be the end of it, and determined that perhaps it was best that none ever harness the Heartstone after all. Despite all the immense good it could bring to the world, the risk of irreparable harm on an unimaginable scale was simply too great to chance it for that good. I further bolstered my vault in which I had stored the Heartstone, and placed sentry stones to alert me…