The Right Stuff

The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions. - Claude Levi-Strauss


You can be a scientist without ever coming up with the "right answer."

Listen and Learn

You can learn a lot from people who view the world differently than you do. - Anthony J. D'Angelo

  It pays to listen.

Smart Questions

Man has made some machines that can answer questions provided the facts are profusely stored in them, but we will never be able to make a machine that will ask questions. The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the answer. - Thomas J. Watson


  Machines are always inside the box. People can think outside the box.

Cause and Effect

It is common error to infer that things which are consecutive in order of time have necessarily the relation of cause and effect. - Jacob Bigelow

Cause and effect are related by time but being related by time does not infer cause and effect.

Enemy of Knowledge

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking


Just because you have read a synopsis doesn't mean you know the subject.

Beginning of Delusion

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion. - Jim Rohn 


In other words, know whereof you speak. 


(Other posts on Persuasion)  

Just Starting

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. - Richard Feynman 


We are not at the apex of knowledge on any subject.


(Other posts on Achievement) 

Lovely Balance

If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance.- Richard Hamming 


He may have been talking about a scientific investigation but the same applies for a business plan or a relationship.

Illumination

I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination. - David Ogilvy 


Judgment is the melding of thought, education and philosophy - each of which can provide illumination. Don't use just one and ignore the other two lest you use the lamp post only for support.


(Other posts on Decisions) 

Right Endeavors

No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect. - Edward Teller

And everyone will say "Why didn't I think of that?"

Hypothesis Neutrality

It is absolutely essential that one should be neutral and not fall in love with the hypothesis. - David Douglass

There is a BIG difference between a hypothesis and a proof. Think UFO's.

Unanswered Questions

A fundamental part of my soul is to doubt and to ask. I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. It is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. - Richard P. Feynman

Just because you have a question does not mean you HAVE to have an answer.

UFO Sightings

From my knowledge of the world I think it is much more likely the reports of flying saucers are the result of the known irrational characteristics of terrestial intelligence rather than the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestial intelligence. - Richard P. Feynman

For the irrational it is easy to make assumptions about the unknown. The rational will try to make the unknown knowable.

Basic Research

Basic research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. - Wernher von Braun

I've done a lot of basic research myself.

Finding Giants

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac Newton

First you have to find the giant; the Internet makes this a lot easier.

Mental Deconstruction

Complex systems are complex in part because of the way they evolve; that is just the nature of the beast. And so, while it’s important to understand why a particular system evolved as it did — to understand the financial, political, social, scientific, and psychological forces that shaped the way, for instance, that cancer is treated in this country — I find it useful to ask an entirely different question: if we were making this system up from scratch today, what would it look like? - Stephen J. Dubner



Mr. Dubner's process applies to far less complex systems than the treatment of cancer. Try applying it to your life, business, personal relations. I like to think of it as a mental demolition and rebuild. Mentally clear the lot and start all over from the ground up.