How can one explain the phenomenon that is Michael Niedermayer? Perhaps he is a superintelligent alien sent to observe us, who hacks on ffmpeg for amusement, and employs a disarming writing style to direct attention away from his superintelligence. It's also possible he's either a cybernetically enhanced human, or a wildly successful AI project. Either way, there must be great wisdom contained in his writing. Perhaps most of this is contained in code. But for laypeople, studying some of his quotes might provide some benefits.

I have tried to identify the most prototypical M.N. posts. A large fraction of his posts fall into one of the formats below. A few of the posts highlighted below are special and don't belong into any large category.

Here are a few top ranking candidates. IT IS VERY IMPERATIVE THAT YOU READ EACH AND EVERY LETTER OF EACH AND EVERY ONE.