Anyone know if this is a true story?

I heard it attributed to Milton Friedman...

"...Milton recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s and visiting a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: “You don’t understand. This is a jobs program.” To which Milton replied: “Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it’s jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels.”

Some things are worse than other things

Raping a maid for instance, is a bad thing.  Ordering the deaths of thousands is a worse thing.  IOZ explains.

Most insightful OS comparison I've read in a while

Can be found here.  For the slightly unconventional definitions of "barbarian" and "civilized," you might want to read some or all of this as well.

In fact, you should probably be reading everything that Venkat writes.  No whining, no tl;dr, just do it.

Farming and Mining

I've been on both sides of the farming/mining divide and I heartily recommend the former over the latter.