“In an ingenious bit of research in Germany, subjects were asked to play a video game that involved steering airplanes, but the joystick was programmed to react only after a brief delay. After playing a while, the players stopped being aware of the time lag. But when the scientists eliminated the delay, the subjects suddenly felt as though they were staring into the future. It was as though the airplanes were moving on their own before the subjects had directed them to do so.

“Arguments about cheating in sport revolve around conventions more than laws. It is not only a question of “was he breaking the rules?” but also “is that rule sacrosanct?” It is the unwritten constitution that exerts the stronger grip.

“Think about who I am. My father was Kenyan; I have close relatives in a small rural village in Kenya to this day; and I spent several years of my childhood living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Think about what it’s going to mean in many parts of the world—parts of the world that we really care about—when I show up as the President of the United States. I’ll be fundamentally changing the world’s perception of what the United States is all about.

“Isn’t age the most terrible thing.

“Economic downturns are good for innovators and bad for pretty much everyone else. Economic downturns force companies to reevaluate how they spend money. Companies need to cut expenditures dramatically yet are expected to have the same level of service as when times were good. This forces firms to look for alternatives to what they are doing.

“My power lies in your conception. For you, I have no power if you refuse to acknowledge it as such.

“People who invest in early stage companies use all sorts of strategies to stall for time. If a company is 6 months old, stalling for 3 months gives you 50% more data on which to act.

“So friend, the next time you see me with a distant smile during your passionate tirade, it’s not because I’m not paying attention, but probably because I’m picturing you debating somebody I know with views entirely opposite to yours.

“A friend of mine put out some stuff with a sign on it saying it was free to whoever wanted it. It sat there for 3 days so he put a sale sign on it and it was gone less than 5 hours later!