The first quote is spot on for the people living in the eastern block in the 70s and 80s. Almost no money but very much everyday creativity. At least from what I remember from my relatives there...
Great list, spent a while reading through it today. I admit it gives me some anxiety that someone could have read and internalized enough media that just a sampling of interesting quotes takes hours to get through. Perhaps I should spend less time on HN and more time with my nose in books and lectures.
This is an excellent collection, even though I don't agree with every quote I've read so far. The author has done a really good job in distilling long forms into points that like-minded individuals will find interesting. That's an immense amount of labor saved.
I think I accumulated more time re-reading it than any other (single) web page over the years.