"I teach financial markets, and it’s a little like teaching R.O.T.C. during the Vietnam War,” said Robert J. Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University. “You have this sense that something’s amiss."

"Their books are a mess"

"Understanding your place in the ecosystem and the value you’re able to bring gets lost and distorted when there’s so much money sloshing around, and everyone you know is pushing you to go and start a company."

"Take apparel: who would have thought ten years ago that Zappos could build an online business which prides itself on delivering not just low prices but an excellent customer experience, including service? Zappos’s online-only retail format is so efficient that it can offer very competitive prices, free shipping and free returns of as many shoes as you like, at a stroke removing the biggest problem with online apparel shopping: “Does it fit?"

"In many categories, online retailing is advancing much faster than the last format innovation — self serve — did the last time around. That’s partly because having to build out stores is not a constraint to growth in the virtual world."

"Too bad it’s also a lot of hype. For the record, not only is Black Friday not the busiest shopping day of the year (that would be Dec. 24), but its value is also largely symbolic. “In general, Black Friday is overrated,” says Robert Spector, a retail historian and the author of Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture. “Retailers use it to create a sense of excitement to get you to come in. But does it signal whether business is really up or down? I don’t think so."

"They can bear children. They can create life. Feminists can scoff at the concept, but this is a privilege of such mind-boggling significance that it essentially blows everything else I’ve mentioned out of the water. And I’ve barely scratched the surface."

"Students, most of them with high SAT scores and low interest in football, lobby fiercely for the right to forsake their studious dignity for one Saturday morning and guzzle cheap beer while tromping in a muddy field. Some may eventually stumble into the Yale Bowl or Harvard Stadium; many others will not."

"He found that reductions in smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure since 1988 have been offset by weight gain, diabetes, and pre-diabetes."

"It’s called DontGetSickOrDie.ly,"

"Our own checks this morning also indicate that the Apple authorized resellers in Hong Kong also sold out early in the day, despite the fact that the most important new feature, Siri, does not speak Mandarin."

"What do I have to defend myself against?,” he told the Awl. “It comes down to, you’re fucking stupid and I’m making money off your mistakes. It might sound rough, but how else are you going to learn not to do this again? It’s like you’re playing Russian Roulette like, oh, let’s hope this doesn’t get out."

"It’s a hard-to-resist syllogism: Dirty jobs are available; Americans won’t fill them; thus, Americans are too soft for dirty jobs. Why else would so many unemployed people turn down the opportunity to work during a recession? Of course, there’s an equally compelling obverse. Why should farmers and plant owners expect people to take a back-breaking seasonal job with low pay and no benefits just because they happen to be offering it? If no one wants an available job—especially in extreme times—maybe the fault doesn’t rest entirely with the people turning it down. Maybe the market is inefficient."