Antonio Garcia Martinez
Antonio Garcia Martinez

You can fake a lot in a startup these days, what with Amazon Web Services and all sorts of off-the-shelf back-end components that let any even minimally competent duffer set up a Web app that does something. Intelligent planning for growth is rare among early startups, but it's the name of the game at a large, rapidly scaling tech company.

Arthur Eddington
Arthur Eddington

It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.

Barney Frank
Barney Frank

Let us not say that we will decide on a political basis at the national level that no State is competent to regulate the practice of medicine in that State if they decide to allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana, because that is what we are talking about.

Barry Eisler
Barry Eisler

The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isn't really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, but anyone who wants to be at least competent at argument can do it.

Ben Shapiro
Ben Shapiro

President Obama is a gifted politician. He is gifted with rhetoric virtuosity. He is gifted with the ability to lie directly to camera without blinking. And he is gifted with some of the most incompetent conservative opposition in the history of the country.

Ben Shapiro
Ben Shapiro

Despite the fact that he has run the most incompetent administration in history, President Obama remains a solid bet for re-election in 2012. Obama's frontrunner status springs from two crucial facts: first, by overexposing himself in the public eye, he has made himself larger than life; second, the Republican field is pathetically weak.

Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections.

Benmont Tench
Benmont Tench

Besides, I'm fairly incompetent. I can't play that fast.

Bill Buford
Bill Buford

Lyon is unusual and seems to be exceptionally incompetent at publicising itself. In fact, it doesn't want visitors. It fears discovery.

Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake

The children of less effective, less competent parents will be more likely to adopt the customs and values of the peer group.