Quotes

"Simplicity is a great virtue, but it requires hard work to achieve and education to appreciate. And to make matters worse, complexity sells better." —Edsger Dijkstra

"When I am going out for an evening I arrange the fire in my stove so that I do not fail to find a good one when I return, though it would have engaged my frequent attention present. So that, when I know I am to be at home, I sometimes make believe that I may go out, to save trouble. And this is the art of living, too, — to leave our life in a condition to go alone, and not to require a constant supervision. We will then sit down serenely to live, as by the side of a stove." —Thoreau

"Respect your opponent when you win, but show no elation, and congratulate them when you lose." —Unknown

"What I cannot create, I do not understand." —Richard Feynman

"…write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right—as right as you can, anyway—it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it." —Stephen King, On Writing

"For successful change at every kind of institution in both the private and the public sectors, a leader must win the support of those in the trenches who deliver the mission of the organization. Recognition of their critical role and respect for them go a long way." —Robert M. Gates

"The McNamara Fallacy: making a decision based solely on quantitative observations (or metrics) and ignoring all others. The reason given is often that these other observations cannot be proven."

"Nothing becomes more important just because you can measure it; it becomes more measurable, that's all." —W. Edwards Deming

"The most important element of leadership effectiveness is authentically living the Vision of the company. The values and ambitions of a company are not instilled entirely by what leaders say; they're instilled primarily by what leaders do. In a healthy company, there are no inconsistencies between what is said and what is believed deep down – the values come from within the leaders and imprint themselves on the organization through day-to-day activity." —Ted Kallman & Andrew Kallman, The Nehemiah Effect

"A leader needs to espouse their ideals with passion to get people to go along with their vision." —Unknown

"There is nothing that could not have gone better with the exact same resources." —Unknown

"You will be judged by the way you speak, the way you write, the strength and novelty of your ideas, your ability to get things done, and how much you try or care." —Unknown

"A 'can-do' attitude doesn't actually mean anything if you cannot do it." —Boomer

"Your job is to do your job, and to provide feedback on how your job could be done better." —Boomer

"Peddling hard in the wrong direction doesn't help just because you want it to. Unless you are honest about where you are, there is a good chance you set off in the wrong direction." —Haroon Meer

"Not a single person on the Wright Bros team had a college education." —Simon Sinek

"A good idea is something that does not solve just one single problem, but rather can solve multiple problems at once." —Shigeru Miyamoto

"You need to select people who tend to be dissatisfied. As they go about their daily experiences, they notice that little things are broken in the world and they want to fix them. Inventors have a divine discontent." —Jeff Bezos

"The battle is decided not by what the machine can do, but by how fast observation was translated into action. The rapid implementation of rapid feedback is crucial." —John Boyd

"Don't get any big ideas. They're not going to happen." —Radiohead

"I like stories, but I love data." —Unknown

"Good intentions don't work. Mechanisms do." —Jeff Bezos

"Defense in depth isn't defense against an attacker, it's defense against failing to correctly manage one of your control surfaces." —Rich Tener

"An engineer starts with complexity and crafts certainty." —Unknown