This process, known as “pointing and calling”, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It’s seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing and calling reduces errors by 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent.

Schlagfertig kontern mit einer Antinomie: Einst wurde ein Mann im Frauenhaus des Averoes( persischer König aus dem Talmud) ertappt. Er durfte noch einen letzten Satz sagen und so über die Art seines Todes entscheiden. Log er, würde er gehängt, sagte er die Wahrheit, würde er geköpft. Doch mit einem Satz schaffte er es, sich zu befreien. Er sagte: „Ich werde gehängt“

In one of the books he learned that the most important text in the literature of alchemy contained only a few lines, and had been inscribed on the surface of an emerald. … Well, then, why do we need all these books? The boy asked. So that we can understand those few lines, the Englishman answered.

People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still with one’s book. They tell their incredible stories at the time you want to hear them. But when you are talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don’t know how you continue the conversation.