Change quotes

From Motley Bytes Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

Agile Manifesto Signatories

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
* Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
* Working software over comprehensive documentation.
* Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
* Responding to change over following a plan.
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”
  • Source: Kent Beck; James Grenning; Robert C. Martin; Mike Beedle; Jim Highsmith; Steve Mellor; Arie van Bennekum; Andrew Hunt; Ken Schwaber; Alistair Cockburn; Ron Jeffries; Jeff Sutherland; Ward Cunningham; Jon Kern; Dave Thomas; Martin Fowler; Brian Marick (2001). 'Manifesto for Agile Software Development'. Agile Alliance. https://agilemanifesto.org/ Retrieved 14 June 2010.
    • © 2001, the above authors. This declaration may be freely copied in any form, but only in its entirety through this notice.
Keywords: Manifesto_quotes Agile_quotes Software_quotes Development_quotes Uncover_quotes Better_quotes Do_quotes Help_quotes Work_quotes Value_quotes Individual_quotes Interaction_quotes Process_quotes Tool_quotes Comprehensive_quotes Documentation_quotes Customer_quotes Collaboration_quotes Contract_quotes Negotiate_quotes Respond_quotes Change_quotes Follow_quotes Plan_quotes

Christopher_Wolfgang_Alexander

Time for Equilibrium

“Misfit provides an incentive to change; good fit provides none. In theory the process is eventually bound to reach the equilibrium of well-fitting forms. However, for the fit to occur in practice, one vital condition must be satisfied. It must have time to happen. The process must be able to achieve equilibrium before the next culture change upsets it again... The direct response is the feedback of the process. If the process is to maintain the good fit ... while the culture drifts, it needs a feedback sensitive enough to take action the moment that one of the potential failures actually occurs.”
Keywords: Design_quotes Incongruity_quotes Change_quotes Equilibrium_quotes Schedule_quotes Time_quotes Feedback_quotes Misfit_quotes Incentive_quotes Fit_quotes Theory_quotes Process_quotes Bound_quotes Form_quotes Practice_quotes Vital_quotes Condition_quotes Satisfy_quotes Time_quotes Happen_quotes Achieve_quotes Before_quotes Culture_quotes Upset_quotes Direct_quotes Response_quotes Maintain_quotes Drift_quotes Sensitive_quotes Action_quotes Potential_quotes Failure_quotes Occur_quotes

Rapid Change

“At the same time that problems increase in quantity, complexity, and difficulty, they also change faster than before.”
Keywords: Problem_quotes Size_quotes Complexity_quotes Fast_quotes Time_quotes Quantity_quotes Increase_quotes Difficulty_quotes Change_quotes

Aristotle

Four Causes

“Plainly, then, these are the causes, and this is how many they are. They are four, and the student of nature should know them all, and it will be his method, when stating on account of what, to get back to them all: the matter, the form, the thing which effects the change, and what the thing is for.”'
  • Source: Aristotle, From Physics, Book II, Part 7, 198a21-26. As quoted in Stephen Everson, 'Aristotle on the Foundations of the State', Political Studies (1988), 36, 89-101. Reprinted in Lloyd P. Gerson (ed.), Aristotle: Politics, Rhetoric and Aesthetics (1999), 74.
Keywords: Epistemology_quotes Physics_quotes Cause_quotes Student_quotes Nature_quotes Knowledge_quotes Method_quotes Matter_quotes Form_quotes Effect_quotes Change_quotes

Isaac_Asimov

Engineering

“Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.”
  • Source: Isaac Asimov, chapter epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, published in 1988 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York. Chapter 22, page 78. ISBN 1-555-84111-2.
Keywords: Science_quotes Amuse_quotes Fascinate_quotes Engineering_quotes Change_quotes World_quotes

Robert_N_Britcher

Testing Large Systems

“Many programmers do an adequate job of testing the logic of a single module. But testing an entire system is another matter. Once a module is absorbed into the mass of programs, running as part of the real world, the nature of testing changes.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 57.
Keywords: Programmer_quotes Testing_quotes Logic_quotes Module_quotes System_quotes Size_quotes Reality_quotes World_quotes Adequate_quotes Job_quotes Absorb_quotes Mass_quotes Program_quotes Run_quotes Part_quotes Nature_quotes Change_quotes Large_quotes

Octavia_E_Butler

Change

“All that you touch, you Change.
 All that you Change, Changes you.
 The only lasting truth, is Change.
 God is Change.”
  • Source: Written by Octavia E. Butler in her book entitled “Parable of the Sower”. Chapter 1. First published by Grand Central Publishing, New York, NY in 1993. Reprinted in 2019. ISBN-13: 978-1538732182.
Keywords: Touch_quotes Change_quotes Truth_quotes God_quotes

Alistair_Cockburn

People Characteristics

"People, as active devices, have success modes and failure modes. The following are the main ones that I have named and used to date:
1. People are communicating beings, doing best face-to-face, in person, with real-time question and answer.
2. People have trouble acting consistently over time.
3. People are highly variable, varying from day to day and place to place.
4. People generally want to be good citizens, are good at looking around, taking initiative, and doing 'whatever is needed' to get the project to work.
There are other characteristics that I won’t expand here:
- People need both think time and communicating opportunities...
- People work well from examples...
- People prefer to fail conservatively than to risk succeeding differently; prefer to invent than to research, can only keep a small amount in their heads, and do make mistakes, and find it hard to change their habits.
- Individual personalities easily dominate a project.
- A person’s personality profile strongly affects their ability to perform specific assignments."
Keywords: People_quotes Success_quotes Failure_quotes Communication_quotes Proximity_quotes Real_Time_quotes Question_quotes Consistency_quotes Time_quotes Variability_quotes Citizen_quotes Good_quotes Observation_quotes Flexibility_quotes Altruism_quotes Conservative_quotes Initiative_quotes Project_quotes Risk_quotes Differences_quotes Invention_quotes Innovation_quotes Research_quotes Thinking_quotes Habit_quotes Personality_quotes Ability_quotes Limitation_quotes Consciousness_quotes Cognition_quotes Mistake_quotes Hard_quotes Domination_quotes Assignment_quotes Active_quotes Device_quotes Mode_quotes Beings_quotes Face_quotes Person_quotes Answer_quotes Trouble_quotes Day_quotes Place_quotes Look_quotes Need_quotes Work_quotes Characteristic_quotes Opportunity_quotes Example_quotes Fail_quotes Head_quotes Change_quotes Profile_quotes Affect_quotes Perform_quotes

Tom_DeMarco and Tim_Lister

Cheeseburgers

"Development is inherently different from production. But managers of development and allied efforts often allow their thinking to be shaped by a management philosophy derived entirely from a production environment.
Imagine for the moment that you’re the manager of the local fast food franchise. It makes perfect sense for you to take any or all of the following efficient production measures:
- Squeeze out error. Make the machine (the human machine) run as smoothly as possible.
- Take a hard line about people goofing off on the job.
- Treat workers as interchangeable pieces of the machine.
- Optimize the steady state. (Don’t even think about how the operation got up to speed, or what it would take to close it down.)
- Standardize procedure. Do everything by the book.
- Eliminate experimentation—that’s what the folks at headquarters are paid for.
These would be reasonable approaches if you were in the fast food business (or any production environment), but you’re not. The 'make a cheeseburger, sell a cheeseburger' mentality can be fatal in your development area. It can only serve to damp your people’s spirits and focus their attention away from the real problems at hand. This style of management will be directly at odds with the work.
To manage thinking workers effectively, you need to take measures nearly opposite those listed above."
  • Source: Book: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 2 (Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger).
Keywords: Cheeseburger_quotes Differences_quotes Production_quotes Development_quotes Manager_quotes Management_quotes Thinking_quotes Philosophy_quotes Environment_quotes Fast_Food_quotes Efficiency_quotes Error_quotes Machine_quotes Humanity_quotes Job_quotes Work_quotes Goofing_Off_quotes Worker_quotes Interchangeable_quotes Fungibility_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Optimization_quotes Change_quotes Steady_State_quotes Innovation_quotes Standards_quotes Book_quotes Experiment_quotes Headquarter_quotes Mentality_quotes Fatal_quotes Damp_quotes Imagination_quotes Steady_quotes State_quotes Eliminate_quotes Reason_quotes Make_quotes Sell_quotes Problem_quotes Effective_quotes Opposite_quotes

Error Quota

"For most thinking workers, making an occasional mistake is a natural and healthy part of their work. But there can be an almost Biblical association between error on the job and sin. This is an attitude we need to take specific pains to change. Speaking to a group of software managers, we introduced a strategy for what we think of as iterative design. The idea is that some designs are intrinsically defect-prone; they ought to be rejected, not repaired. Such dead ends should be expected in the design activity. The lost effort of the dead end is a small price to pay for a clean, fresh start. To our surprise, many managers felt this would pose an impossible political problem for their own bosses: 'How can we throw away a product that our company has paid to produce?' They seemed to believe that they’d be better off salvaging the defective version even though it might cost more in the long run. Fostering an atmosphere that doesn’t allow for error simply makes people defensive. They don’t try things that may turn out badly. You encourage this defensiveness when you try to systematize the process, when you impose rigid methodologies so that staff members are not allowed to make any of the key strategic decisions lest they make them incorrectly. The average level of technology may be modestly improved by any steps you take to inhibit error. The team sociology, however, can suffer grievously. The opposite approach would be to encourage people to make some errors. You do this by asking your folks on occasion what dead-end roads they’ve been down, and by making sure they understand that 'none' is not the best answer. When people blow it, they should be congratulated — that’s part of what they’re being paid for."
  • Source: Book: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 2 (Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger).
Keywords: Thinking_quotes Worker_quotes Mistake_quotes Work_quotes Natural_quotes Biblical_quotes Error_quotes Job_quotes Sin_quotes Attitude_quotes Change_quotes Software_quotes Manager_quotes Strategy_quotes Iterative_quotes Design_quotes Defect_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Rejection_quotes Repair_quotes Dead_End_quotes Failure_quotes Fail_Early_quotes Activity_quotes Effort_quotes Cost_quotes Clean_quotes Fresh_quotes Impossibility_quotes Political_quotes Problem_quotes Environment_quotes Atmosphere_quotes Defensive_quotes Try_quotes Systematic_quotes Process_quotes Rigidity_quotes Methodology_quotes Technology_quotes Team_quotes Sociology_quotes Suffering_quotes Encouragement_quotes Congratulate_quotes

Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra

Software Crisis

“The turning point was the Conference on Software Engineering in Garmisch, October 1968, a conference that created a sensation as there occurred the first open admission of the software crisis.”
Keywords: Turning_quotes Change_quotes Conference_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Software_quotes Crisis_quotes Engineering_quotes Sensation_quotes Occur_quotes Admission_quotes

Peter_Drucker

Change as Order

“We no longer even understand the question whether change is by itself good or bad, ... We start out with the axiom that it is the norm. We do not see change as altering the order... We see change as being order itself - indeed the only order we can comprehend today is a dynamic, a moving, a changing one.”
  • Source: Peter F. Drucker, “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World”, New York: Harper & Row, 1959. p. 22.
Keywords: Long_quotes Understanding_quotes Question_quotes Change_quotes Good_quotes Bad_quotes Start_quotes Axiom_quotes Norms_quotes Alteration_quotes Order_quotes Being_quotes Comprehend_quotes Dynamic_quotes Move_quotes

Future Different

“The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different.”
  • Source: Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, New York: Harper & Row, 1973. p. 44.
Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Future_quotes Go_quotes Differences_quotes Change_quotes Prediction_quotes

Big University Relics

“Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book. Do you realize that the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of health care? And for the middle-class family, college education for their children is as much of a necessity as is medical care — without it the kids have no future. Such totally uncontrollable expenditures, without any visible improvement in either the content or the quality of education, means that the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis.”
  • Source: Peter Drucker, “Seeing Things as They Really Are”, Forbes (March 10, 1997)
Keywords:Year_quotes Big_quotes University_quotes Education_quotes Relic_quotes Survival_quotes Large_quotes Change_quotes First_quotes Printing_quotes Book_quotes Cost_quotes High_quotes Rise_quotes Fast_quotes Health_quotes Care_quotes Middle_quotes Class_quotes Family_quotes College_quotes Children_quotes Necessary_quotes Medicine_quotes Future_quotes Total_quotes Control_quotes Expense_quotes Visibility_quotes Improve_quotes Content_quotes Quality_quotes System_quotes Rapid_quotes Become_quotes Untenable_quotes Uncontrollable_quotes Deep_quotes Crisis_quotes Campus_quotes

Albert_Einstein

Quantum Adaptation

“All my attempts... to adapt the theoretical foundations of physics to this [new type of] knowledge failed completely. It was as if the ground had been pulled out from under one, with no firm foundation to be seen anywhere...”
  • Source: (Einstein, 1949a) Einstein, A. 1949a. "Autobiographical Notes" in P.A. Schilpp (editor), 1949, "Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist", Library of Living Philosophers, Evanston, Illinois.
Keywords: Physics_quotes Quantum_quotes Knowledge_quotes Certainty_quotes Change_quotes Confusion_quotes Theoretical_quotes Foundation_quotes Fail_quotes Pull_quotes Ground_quotes

Richard_Feynman

Cargo Cult

“...there have been many experiments running rats through all kinds of mazes, and so on — with little clear result. But in 1937 a man named Young did a very interesting one. He had a long corridor with doors all along one side where the rats came in, and doors along the other side where the food was. He wanted to see if he could train rats to go to the third door down from wherever he started them off. No. The rats went immediately to the door where the food had been the time before. The question was, how did the rats know, because the corridor was so beautifully built and so uniform, that this was the same door as before? Obviously there was something about the door that was different from the other doors. So he painted the doors very carefully, arranging the textures on the faces of the doors exactly the same. Still the rats could tell. Then he thought maybe they were smelling the food, so he used chemicals to change the smell after each run. Still the rats could tell. Then he realized the rats might be able to tell by seeing the lights and the arrangement in the laboratory like any commonsense person. So he covered the corridor, and still the rats could tell. He finally found that they could tell by the way the floor sounded when they ran over it. And he could only fix that by putting his corridor in sand. So he covered one after another of all possible clues and finally was able to fool the rats so that they had to learn to go to the third door. If he relaxed any of his conditions, the rats could tell. Now, from a scientific standpoint, that is an A-number-one experiment. That is the experiment that makes rat-running experiments sensible, because it uncovers the clues that the rat is really using — not what you think it's using. And that is the experiment that tells exactly what conditions you have to use in order to be careful and control everything in an experiment with rat-running. I looked into the subsequent history of this research. The next experiment, and the one after that, never referred to Mr. Young. They never used any of his criteria of putting the corridor on sand, or of being very careful. They just went right on running rats in the same old way, and paid no attention to the great discoveries of Mr. Young, and his papers are not referred to, because he didn't discover anything about rats. In fact, he discovered all the things you have to do to discover something about rats. But not paying attention to experiments like that is a characteristic of cargo cult science.”
  • Source: "Cargo Cult Science", adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address; also published in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 345.
    • Feynman, R. P. (1974). In Feynman, R. P. (1974, June). Cargo Cult Science. Science and Engineering.
Keywords: Cargo_quotes Cult_quotes Experiment_quotes Rat_quotes Maze_quotes Result_quotes Door_quotes Smell_quotes Sight_quotes Sound_quotes Clue_quotes Control_quotes Attention_quotes Ignore_quotes Ignorance_quotes Discovery_quotes Corridor_quotes Food_quotes Train_quotes Immediate_quotes Time_quotes Question_quotes Know_quotes Uniform_quotes Obvious_quotes Different_quotes Paint_quotes Arrange_quotes Texture_quotes Face_quotes Think_quotes Chemical_quotes Change_quotes Run_quotes Realize_quotes Light_quotes Laboratory_quotes Common_quotes Sense_quotes Person_quotes Cover_quotes Floor_quotes Fool_quotes Relax_quotes Condition_quotes Science_quotes Standpoint_quotes Uncover_quotes Careful_quotes Look_quotes History_quotes Research_quotes Refer_quotes Criteria_quotes Sand_quotes Old_quotes Fact_quotes Characteristic_quotes

Ronald_Fisher

Fisher's Theorem of Natural Selection

“The rate of increase in the mean fitness of any organism at any time ascribable to natural selection acting through changes in gene frequencies is exactly equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time”
  • Source: Ronald Aylmer Fisher in the book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, published in 1930 by Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Keywords: Evolution_quotes Fitness_quotes Organism_Quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Genetics_quotes Gene_quotes Theorem_quotes Rate_quotes Increase_quotes Mean_quotes Ascribe_quotes Act_quotes Change_quotes Frequency_quotes Exact_quotes Variance_quotes Time_quotes

Henry_Ford

Change is Permanent

“There's just one thing that's permanent in this world, and that's change. And when a man gets too old to change, why, then, he dies.”
  • Source: Interview with Bruce Barton, "It Would Be Fun To Start Over Again," The American Magazine, April 1921
Keywords: Permanent_quotes Change_quotes World_quotes Old_quotes Death_quotes Man_quotes

Yuval_Noah_Harari

Origins of Order

“Being truthful about the origins of our social order makes it easier to make changes in it... But such truthfulness comes at a price. Acknowledging the human origins of the social order makes it harder to persuade everyone to agree on it.”
  • Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 2 page 36. ISBN 978-0593734247.
Keywords: Truth_quotes Origin_quotes Social_quotes Order_quotes Easy_quotes Change_quotes Price_quotes Acknowledge_quotes Human_quotes Hard_quotes Persuasion_quotes Everyone_quotes Agree_quotes Cooperation_quotes

Grace_Hopper

Allergic To Change

“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We've always done it this way.’ I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper as quoted in "The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper" by Philip Schieber in OCLC Newsletter, No. 167 (March/April 1987).
Keywords: Change_quotes Bureaucracy_quotes Human_quotes Allergic_quotes Way_quotes Fight_quotes Clock_quotes Wall_quotes Run_quotes Counter-clockwise_quotes

Always Done It

“I think the saddest phrase I ever hear at a computer installation is that horrible one, ‘but we've always done it that way’. That's a forbidden phrase in my office.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper in a lecture delivered 1982-08-19 at the NSA (National Security Agency). Video available at YouTube as “NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper”, channel The Black Vault Originals, online at <https://youtu.be/_bP14OzIJWI?si=wcUTl04b4p4scY6k>, posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. Quote in video at 23:40.
Keywords: Sad_quotes Phrase_quotes Hear_quotes Computer_quotes Installation_quotes Horrible_quotes Done_quotes Always_quotes Way_quotes Forbidden_quotes Office_quotes Change_quotes

Change Mind

“One of the major difficulties is the difficulty of changing people's minds.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper in a lecture delivered 1982-08-19 at the NSA (National Security Agency). Video available at YouTube as “NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper”, channel The Black Vault Originals, online at <https://youtu.be/_bP14OzIJWI?si=wcUTl04b4p4scY6k>, posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. Quote in video at 25:45.
Keywords: Major_quotes Difficulty_quotes Change_quotes People_quotes Mind_quotes

Listen to Juniors

“I had to give a presentation... All Admirals and Generals. I had to remind those gentlemen that they've had piles of big reports sitting on their desks that they had to read and absorb. Big decisions that they had to make. And they had not had time to keep up with the technology which was changing overnight. And therefore, they were going to have to learn to listen to their juniors.”
  • Source: Grace Hopper in a lecture delivered 1982-08-19 at the NSA (National Security Agency). Video available at YouTube as “NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper”, channel The Black Vault Originals, online at <https://youtu.be/_bP14OzIJWI?si=wcUTl04b4p4scY6k>, posted 2024-08, retrieved 2024-08. Quote in video at 25:55.
Keywords: Presentation_quotes Admiral_quotes General_quotes Remind_quotes Gentleman_quotes Pile_quotes Report_quotes Desk_quotes Read_quotes Absorb_quotes Decision_quotes Make_quotes Time_quotes Keep_quotes Technology_quotes Change_quotes Overnight_quotes Learn_quotes Listen_quotes Junior_quotes

Aldous_Huxley

Technological and Social Change

“In modern scientific method we have a technique for invention; technological progress proceeds at an accelerating speed. But social change is inevitably associated with technological progress. To quicken the rate of the second is to quicken the rate of the first.”
  • Source: Aldous Huxley (1936). An essay entitled Words and Behavior within the book The Olive Tree and Other Essays, published by Harper and Brothers, ASIN: B08VNTBLY4.
Keywords: Modern_quotes Science_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Technique_quotes Invention_quotes Technology_quotes Progress_quotes Acceleration_quotes Speed_quotes Society_quotes Sociology_quotes Inevitability_quotes Association_quotes Quick_quotes Rate_quotes Change_quotes

Steve_Jobs

Misfits

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
  • Source: Steve Jobs in “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, published by Prabhat Prakashan in 2020. ISBN: 9789351869191.
Keywords: Crazy_quotes Misfit_quotes Rebel_quotes Troublemaker_quotes Round_quotes Peg_quotes Square_quotes Hole_quotes See_quotes Different_quotes Fond_quotes Rule_quotes Respect_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Quote_quotes Disagree_quotes Glorify_quotes Vilify_quotes Ignore_quotes Change_quotes Human_quotes Race_quotes Forward_quotes Genius_quotes People_quotes Think_quotes World_quotes

John_Maynard_Keynes

Slow Progress

“From the earliest times of which we have record — back, say, to two thousand years before Christ [BCE 2000] down to the beginning of the eighteenth century [CE 1700] — there was no very great change in the standard of life of the average man living in the civilised centres of the earth... This slow rate of progress, or lack of progress, was due to two reasons — to the remarkable absence of important technical improvements and to the failure of capital to accumulate.”
  • Source: From the Essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” written by John Maynard Keynes in 1930. Included in the book “Essays in Persuasion” edited by John Maynard Keynes and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1963.
Keywords: Early_quotes Time_quotes Record_quotes Ancient_quotes Century_quotes Pre-industrial_quotes Industrial_quotes Change_quotes Standard_quotes Life_quotes Living_quotes Civilization_quotes Center_quotes Earth_quotes Slow_quotes Rate_quotes Progress_quotes Lack_quotes Due_quotes Causality_quotes Reason_quotes Remarkable_quotes Absence_quotes Important_quotes Technology_quotes Improvement_quotes Failure_quotes Capital_quotes Accumulate_quotes

Technological Unemployment

“In our own lifetimes... we may be able to perform all the operations of agriculture, mining, and manufacture with a quarter of the human effort to which we have been accustomed. For the moment the very rapidity of these changes is hurting us and bringing difficult problems to solve... We are being afflicted with... technological unemployment. This means unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour. But this is only a temporary phase of maladjustment... In the long run... mankind is solving its economic problem. I would predict that the standard of life in progressive countries one hundred years hence will be between four and eight times as high as it is today.”
  • Source: From the Essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” written by John Maynard Keynes in 1930. Included in the book “Essays in Persuasion” edited by John Maynard Keynes and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1963.
Keywords: Lifetime_quotes Perform_quotes Ability_quotes Operation_quotes Agriculture_quotes Mining_quotes Manufacturing_quotes Quarter_quotes Human_quotes Effort_quotes Rapid_quotes Change_quotes Hurt_quotes Bring_quotes Difficult_quotes Problem_quotes Solve_quotes Afflict_quotes Technology_quotes Unemployment_quotes Employment_quotes Discover_quotes Means_quotes Economize_quotes Labor_quotes Outrun_quotes Pace_quotes Find_quotes Use_quotes Temporary_quotes Phase_quotes Maladjustment_quotes Adjustment_quotes Long_quotes Run_quotes Mankind_quotes Humanity_quotes Economic_quotes Prediction_quotes Standard_quotes Life_quotes Living_quotes Progressive_quotes Country_quotes Hundred_quotes Year_quotes High_quotes Today_quotes

Hollis_A_Kinslow

Deadlines and Iteration

“Iteration is cut short by an arbitrary deadline. This is a fact that must be changed.”
Keywords: Iterative_quotes Deadline_quotes Project_quotes Schedule_quotes Arbitrariness_quotes Fact_quotes Change_quotes Cut_quotes Short_quotes

Seth_Lloyd

Information and Computation

“So, just as it is real to say that the universe is made out of electrons and electromagnetic fields and photons and elementary particles, the universe is also really made out of information and the way the universe changes over time is really a computation.”'
  • Source: Spoken by Seth Lloyd during a video interview. Contained in a video entitled Seth Lloyd - What is Information?. Posted on Youtube channel Closer to Truth. Posted 2019-12-05. Video location circa 9:30. Online at https://youtu.be/u8VdPW8tCWY.
Keywords: Reality_quotes Universe_quotes Electron_quotes Electromagnetism_quotes Field_quotes Photon_quotes Element_quotes Particle_quotes Information_quotes Change_quotes Time_quotes Computation_quotes Causality_quotes Computed_Reality_quotes Simulation_quotes

Pim_van_Lommel

Materialist Science

“In materialist science, only that is true that you can objectify, what you can measure, what you can duplicate, or what you can falsify. Then it is true. Now what you feel and what you think, your consciousness, you cannot objectify, you cannot duplicate, you cannot measure, and you cannot falsify. Consciousness, the essence of who you are, what you feel, what you think, is beyond our current materialist science. So, they call it an illusion. But it is the essence of who we are. We have to expand science into post-materialist science. We have to change the paradigm to include subjective experiences... Science should include subjective experiences into the scientific method... The materialist aspect of science is still important, but it's not enough... This is a totally different approach when you realize that everything has its subjective aspects.”
  • Source: Words from Pim van Lommel in a video interview. From the YouTube video “Consciousness beyond death, with Dr. Pim van Lommel” on the Essentia Foundation channel. Posted 2023-07-23. Online at https://youtu.be/NVsBFOB7H44. Offset 46:19.
Keywords: Science_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Materialism_quotes Truth_quotes Objective_quotes Measurement_quotes Duplicate_quotes Falsification_quotes Feel_quotes Think_quotes Consciousness_quotes Essence_quotes Beyond_quotes Illusion_quotes Call_quotes Expand_quotes Post-materialist_quotes Aspect_quotes Important_quotes Change_quotes Paradigm_quotes Subjective_quotes Experience_quotes Enough_quotes Different_quotes Approach_quotes Realize_quotes Everything_quotes

Karl_Marx

Interpret or Change

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”
  • Original German: "Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern."
  • Source: Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), Thesis 11, Marx Engels Selected Works,(MESW), Volume I, p. 15; these words are also engraved upon his grave. First published as an appendix to the pamphlet Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy by Friedrich Engels (1886). Also Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klassischen deutschen Philosophie: Mit ... By Friedrich Engels
Keywords: Philosopher_quotes Interpretation_quotes Change_quotes World_quotes

David_E_Nye

Unanticipated Consequences

“The combined choices of inventors, entrepreneurs, and consumers create unanticipated cultural consequences. Because no single individual or institution wills certain changes, they are often mistaken for attributes of the machine itself... Machines are human-directed agents of cultural change.”
  • Source: A book. Written by David E. Nye. Entitled 'Narratives and Spaces'. Published in 1997 by Univerity of Exeter Press, Exeter, UK. Hardback ISBN 0-85989-555-6. Paperback ISBN 0-85989-556-4. Introduction, pages 2-3.
Keywords: Machine_quotes Combine_quotes Choice_quotes Inventor_quotes Entrepreneur_quotes Consumer_quotes Create_quotes Unanticipated_quotes Culture_quotes Consequence_quotes Individual_quotes Institution_quotes Change_quotes Mistake_quotes Attribute_quotes Human_quotes Direct_quotes Agent_quotes

Technology Contested

“Technologies are contested terrains. World's fairs, spectacular lighting, and media events all have changed in response to shifting public tastes. Americans had divided reactions to the Apollo Space Program, and they created divergent narratives to understand computers, the electrification of society, and the meanings of energy sources. Technologies are contested, and a close reading of such events... reveals not hegemonic control but a welter of meanings. The public understands technology not as one-dimensional agents of change, but as both enabling and disabling innovations.”
  • Source: A book. Written by David E. Nye. Entitled 'Narratives and Spaces'. Published in 1997 by Univerity of Exeter Press, Exeter, UK. Hardback ISBN 0-85989-555-6. Paperback ISBN 0-85989-556-4. Introduction, page 3.
Keywords: Technology_quotes Contested_quotes Terrain_quotes World_quotes Fair_quotes Spectacular_quotes Lighting_quotes Media_quotes Event_quotes Change_quotes Response_quotes Public_quotes Taste_quotes American_quotes Divide_quotes Reaction_quotes Apollo_quotes Space_quotes Program_quotes Create_quotes Divergent_quotes Narrative_quotes Understand_quotes Computer_quotes Electrification_quotes Society_quotes Meaning_quotes Energy_quotes Hegemonic_quotes Control_quotes Welter_quotes One_quotes Dimension_quotes Agent_quotes Enable_quotes Disable_quotes Innovation_quotes

Programmers Perfectionists

“A single error in a program thousands of lines long prevented it from running correctly, and computer programmers became known as a fanatically exact group of perfectionists, working in an arcane specialty. Sociologists studying the ‘man-machine' interface found that a programmer's personality often changed after prolonged exposure to the computer, becoming severely logical and machine-like.”
  • Source: A book. Written by David E. Nye. Entitled 'Narratives and Spaces'. Published in 1997 by Univerity of Exeter Press, Exeter, UK. Hardback ISBN 0-85989-555-6. Paperback ISBN 0-85989-556-4. Chapter 10, page 164.
Keywords: Single_quotes Error_quotes Program_quotes Thousand_quotes Line_quotes Long_quotes Prevent_quotes Run_quotes Correct_quotes Computer_quotes Programmer_quotes Fanatic_quotes Exact_quotes Group_quotes Perfectionist_quotes Work_quotes Arcane_quotes Specialty_quotes Sociologist_quotes Study_quotes Man_quotes Machine_quotes Interface_quotes Find_quotes Personality_quotes Change_quotes Prolong_quotes Exposure_quotes Severe_quotes Logical_quotes Software_quotes Engineering_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes

J_Robert_Oppenheimer

World Would Not Be the Same

“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
  • Source: Oppenheimer is quoting from the 1944 Prabhavananda and Isherwood translation of the Bhagavad Gita. The line quoted is spoken by Krishna, one of the major avatars of Vishnu; some assert that the passage would be better translated "I am become Time, the destroyer of worlds." online video at atomicarchive.com<nowiki>. Also an interview about the Trinity explosion, first broadcast as part of the television documentary The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965), produced by Fred Freed, NBC White Paper; atomicarchive.com
Keywords: Knowledge_quotes World_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Change_quotes Same_quotes People_quotes Few_quotes Laughter_quotes Crying_quotes Silence_quotes Hindu_quotes Persuasion_quotes Prince_quotes Duty_quotes Impress_quotes Arm_quotes Death_quotes Destruction_quotes Suppose_quotes Thinking_quotes Way_quotes Form_quotes Become_quotes Bhagavad-Gita_quotes Vishnu_quotes

Richard_Pascale

Efficiency and Variation

“Corporations, in the name of efficiency, suppress variation by 'getting all the ducks in line'. To optimize productivity, they evolve highly refined and internally consistent operating systems. Payoff results - as long as the music lasts. But in the face of nontraditional competitors or major environmental discontinuities, all that streamlining and reengineering limits diversity, suppresses self-organization by those closest to the disruptive change, and curtails a bottom-up emergent response to cope more effectively... Nothing fails like success. Over-adaptive organizations become inflexible. Disruptive change leaves them as helpless as a beached whale.”
  • Source: Richard T. Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin (2010). “The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems”, p.190, Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press
Keywords: Efficiency_quotes Corporation_quotes Suppress_quotes Variability_quotes Duck_quotes Optimization_quotes Productivity_quotes Evolution_quotes Refine_quotes Consistency_quotes Operating_System_quotes Pay_quotes Result_quotes Music_quotes Tradition_quotes Competition_quotes Major_quotes Environment_quotes Discontinuity_quotes Streamline_quotes Reengineering_quotes Engineering_quotes Limitation_quotes Diversity_quotes Self-Organization_quotes Organization_quotes Disruption_quotes Change_quotes Helpless_quotes Whale_quotes Line_quotes System_quotes Nontraditional_quotes Bottom-up_quotes Emergent_quotes Response_quotes Cope_quotes Effective_quotes Innovation_quotes Failure_quotes Success_quotes Over-adaptive_quotes Inflexible_quotes Beached_quotes

Randy_Pennington

Positive Paranoia

“A perpetual state of positive paranoia embraces the reality that there are always changes and circumstances that will derail your success.”
Keywords: Perpetual_quotes State_quotes Positive_quotes Paranoi_quotes Embrace_quotes Reality_quotes Change_quotes Circumstance_quotes Derail_quotes Success_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Specifications

“It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.”
Keywords: Specification_quotes Requirements_quotes Easy_quotes Change_quotes Fit_quotes Program_quotes Project_quotes Vice_quotes Versa_quotes

Balance Efficiency and Generality

“Our progress, then, is measured by the balance we achieve between efficiency and generality. As the nature of our involvement with computation changes — and it does — the appropriate description of language changes; our emphasis shifts. I feel that our successor model will show such a change. Computer science is a restless infant and its progress depends as much on shifts in point of view as on the orderly development of our current concepts.”

Keywords: Progress_quotes Measurement_quotes Balance_quotes Achievement_quotes Efficiency_quotes Generality_quotes Nature_quotes Involve_quotes Computation_quotes Change_quotes Appropriate_quotes Description_quotes Language_quotes Emphasis_quotes Shift_quotes Feel_quotes Successor_quotes Model_quotes Show_quotes Computer_Science_quotes Restless_quotes Infant_quotes Dependence_quotes Point_of_View_quotes Perspective_quotes Order_quotes Development_quotes Current_quotes Conceptual_quotes Science_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Computational Mind Probabilistic

“The computational theory thus embraces an alternative kind of computer with many elements that are active to a degree corresponding to the probability that some statement is true or false, and in which the activity levels change smoothly to register new and roughly accurate probabilities. (As we shall see, that may be the way the brain works.) The key idea is that the answer to the question 'What makes a system smart?' is not the kind of stuff it is made of or the kind of energy flowing through it, but what the parts of the machine stand for and how the patterns of changes inside it are designed to mirror truth-preserving relationships (including probabilistic and fuzzy truths).”
  • Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 2 Section: The search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.
Keywords: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Embrace_quotes Alternative_quotes Kind_quotes Computer_quotes Element_quotes Activity_quotes Degree_quotes Correspondence_quotes Probability_quotes Statement_quotes True_quotes False_quotes Level_quotes Change_quotes Smooth_quotes Register_quotes Rough_quotes Accuracy_quotes Sight_quotes Way_quotes Brain_quotes Work_quotes Key_quotes Idea_quotes Answer_quotes Question_quotes System_quotes Smart_quotes Stuff_quotes Energy_quotes Flow_quotes Part_quotes Machine_quotes Stand_quotes Pattern_quotes Inside_quotes Design_quotes Mirror_quotes Fuzzy_quotes Truth_quotes Preservation_quotes Mind_quotes

Karl_Popper

Irresponsible Dreams

“The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there. In most other fields of human endeavour there is change, but rarely progress ... And in most fields we do not even know how to evaluate change.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, From Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), 216. Reproduced in Karl Popper, Truth, Rationality and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1979), 9.
Keywords: History_quotes Science_quotes Humanity_quotes Idea_quotes Irresponsible_quotes Dreaming_quotes Obstinate_quotes Error_quotes Activity_quotes System_quotes Criticism_quotes Often_quotes Time_quotes Correction_quotes Learning_quotes Mistake_quotes Speak_quotes Clear_quotes Sensibility_quotes Progress_quotes Field_quotes Endeavour_quotes Change_quotes Evaluation_quotes

Carl_Sagan

Changing Opinion

“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”
  • Source: Carl Sagan, Keynote address at CSICOP conference, 1987
Keywords: Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Often_quotes Happen_quotes Speak_quotes Good_quotes Argue_quotes Position_quotes Mistake_quotes Bias_quotes Change_quotes Mind_quotes Hearing_quotes Old_quotes View_quotes Do_quotes Humanity_quotes Pain_quotes Day_quotes Recall_quotes Political_quotes Religion_quotes

Herbert_Simon

Design and Analysis

“In view of the key role of design in professional activity, it is ironic that in this century the natural sciences almost drove the sciences of the artificial from professional school curricula, a development that peaked about two or three decades after the Second World War. Engineering schools gradually became schools of physics and mathematics; medical schools became schools of biological science; business schools became schools of finite mathematics. The use of adjectives like 'applied' concealed, but did not change, the fact. It simply meant that in the professional schools those topics were selected from mathematics and the natural sciences for emphasis which were thought to be most nearly relevant to professional practice. It did not mean that design continued to be taught, as distinguished from analysis.”
Keywords: View_quotes Key_quotes Role_quotes Design_quotes Professional_quotes Activity_quotes Irony_quotes Century_quotes Natural_quotes Science_quotes Drive_quotes Artificial_quotes School_quotes Curriculum_quotes Development_quotes Peak_quotes Decade_quotes World_quotes War_quotes Engineering_quotes Gradual_quotes Physics_quotes Mathematics_quotes Medical_quotes Biology_quotes Business_quotes Finite_quotes Applied_quotes Conceal_quotes Change_quotes Fact_quotes Simplicity_quotes Meaning_quotes Topic_quotes Selection_quotes Emphasis_quotes Thinking_quotes Near_quotes Relevance_quotes Practice_quotes Continue_quotes Teaching_quotes Analysis_quotes

Patrick_Vlaskovits

Faster Horse

“However, even if Ford didn’t verbalize his thoughts on customers’ ostensible inability to communicate their unmet needs for innovative products — history indicates that Henry Ford most certainly did think along those lines... Henry Ford froze the design of the Model T... Ford had no compelling reason to innovate in any other sphere other than cost and price reduction... But everything changed with the onset of the innovations introduced by General Motors in the 1920s, which took the direct opposite of Henry Ford’s tack of “Any color … so long as it is black” and is best summed up by Alfred Sloan’s consumer-research driven “A Car for Every Purse and Purpose”... In 1921, the Ford Motor Company sold about 2/3 of all the cars built in the U.S. By 1926, this share had fallen to approximately 1/3. And in 1927, when Ford belatedly responded (at tremendous financial cost and internal strife) to changes in the market’s tastes and competitive innovation by shutting down production temporarily to re-tool his factories and bring the Model A to the market, that percentage fell to about 15%... Yes, some customers in certain types of businesses are quite capable of verbalizing precisely what sort of innovative product one could build and sell them. And of course, customers in other types of businesses are wholly incapable of verbalizing, with any sort of fidelity whatsoever, what they need and why they need it. An innovator should have understanding of one’s customers and their problems via empirical, observational, anecdotal methods or even intuition. They should also feel free to ignore customers’ inputs. Because by now it should be clear that Ford’s adherence to his vision of the mass-market car and how to materialize that vision was instrumental in both his early success in growing Ford Motor Company as well as his later failure to respond in a timely and effective manner to rapid innovation in the marketplace.”'
Keywords: Ford(topic)_quotes Sloan(topic)_quotes Verbalize_quotes Thinking_quotes Customer_quotes Requirements_quotes Ostensible_quotes Inability_quotes Communication_quotes Unmet_quotes Need_quotes Innovation_quotes Product_quotes History_quotes Freeze_quotes Design_quotes Model_T_quotes Automobile_quotes Compel_quotes Sphere_quotes Cost_quotes Price_quotes Reduction_quotes Change_quotes General_Motors_quotes Consumer_quotes Research_quotes Opposite_quotes Color_quotes Black_quotes Car_quotes Purse_quotes Ford_Motor_quotes Build_quotes United_States_quotes Share_quotes Market_quotes Belated_quotes Respond_quotes Tremendous_quotes Financial_quotes Internal_quotes Strife_quotes Taste_quotes Competition_quotes Shut_quotes Production_quotes Tool_quotes Factory_quotes Model_A_quotes Percentage_quotes Type_quotes Business_quotes Capable_quotes Precise_quotes Sort_quotes Sell_quotes Incapable_quotes Fidelity_quotes What_quotes Why_quotes Understand_quotes Problem_quotes Empirical_quotes Observation_quotes Anecdotal_quotes Method_quotes Intuition_quotes Feel_quotes Free_quotes Ignore_quotes Input_quotes Clear_quotes Adherence_quotes Vision_quotes Mass_quotes Innovator_quotes Materialize_quotes Instrumental_quotes Success_quotes Early_quotes Grow_quotes Later_quotes Failure_quotes Timely_quotes Effective_quotes Manner_quotes Rapid_quotes Marketplace_quotes Horse_quotes Faster_quotes

Matt_Warner

Surprising Change

“It's surprising how a little affair sometimes will change a man's whole life.”
  • Source: Matt Warner in the book “Last of the Bandit Riders” Originally published in 1940, republished in 2000 by Big Mood Traders, ISBN 0-9656694-1-6. Chapter 1.
Keywords: Surprise_quotes Little_quotes Affair_quotes Sometime_quotes Change_quotes Man_quotes Whole_quotes Life_quotes

Gerald_Weinberg

Knowledge Came Slowly

“In ages past, the knowledge came very slowly, and one man in his life was not likely to see much change other than that wrought by nature. The controlled incorporation of arsenic into copper to make bronze took several thousand years to develop; the substitution of tin for the more dangerous arsenic took another thousand or two. In our modern age, laboratories turn out an alloy a day, or more, with properties made to order. The alloying of metals led to the rise and fall of civilizations, but the changes were too slow to be appreciated. A truer blade meant victory over the invaders, but changes were local and slow enough to be absorbed by a million tiny adjustments without destroying the species. With an alloy a day, we can no longer be sure. Science and engineering have been the catalysts for the unprecedented speed and magnitude of change. The physicist shows us how to harness the power of the nucleus; the chemist shows us how to increase the quantity of our food; the geneticist shows us how to improve the quality of our children. But science and engineering have been unable to keep pace with the second-order effects produced by their first-order victories. The excess heat from the nuclear generator alters the spawning pattern of fish, and, before adjustments can be made, other species have produced irreversible changes in the ecology of the river and its borders. The pesticide eliminates one insect only to the advantage of others that may be worse, or the herbicide clears the rain forest for farming, but the resulting soil changes make the land less productive than it was before. And of what we are doing to our progeny, we still have only ghastly hints. Some have said the general systems movement was born out of the failures of science, but it would be more accurate to say the general systems approach is needed because science has been such a success. Science and technology have colonized the planet, and nothing in our lives is untouched. In this changing, they have revealed a complexity with which they are not prepared to deal. The general systems movement has taken up the task of helping scientists unravel complexity, technologists to master it, and others to learn to live with it.”
  • Source: Weinberg, Gerald (2011-04-07). An Introduction to General Systems Thinking (Kindle Locations 264-267). Weinberg & Weinberg. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: History_quotes Knowledge_quotes Slow_quotes Humanity_quotes Life_quotes Change_quotes Nature_quotes Arsenic_quotes Copper_quotes Bronze_quotes Technology_quotes Tin_quotes Metal_quotes Laboratory_quotes Property_quotes On_Demand_quotes Rise_quotes Fall_quotes Civilization_quotes Appreciation_quotes Victory_quotes Blade_quotes Invader_quotes Adjustment_quotes Species_quotes Science_quotes Engineering_quotes Catalyst_quotes Speed_quotes Physics_quotes Chemistry_quotes Food_quotes Genetics_quotes Quality_quotes Children_quotes Effect_quotes Heat_quotes Fish_quotes Irreversible_quotes Ecology_quotes River_quotes Pesticide_quotes Insect_quotes Herbicide_quotes Forest_quotes Farming_quotes Soil_quotes Productivity_quotes Progeny_quotes System_quotes Failure_quotes Accuracy_quotes Colonize_quotes Planet_quotes Earth_quotes Complexity_quotes Preparation_quotes Man_quotes Nucleus_quotes Quantity_quotes Second-order_quotes First-order_quotes Nuclear_quotes Generator_quotes Alter_quotes Spawn_quotes Pattern_quotes Border_quotes Eliminate_quotes Advantage_quotes Worse_quotes Rain_quotes Land_quotes Ghastly_quotes Hint_quotes General_quotes Approach_quotes Success_quotes Accurate_quotes Say_quotes Untouch_quotes Reveal_quotes Master_quotes Learn_quotes

Vending Machines

“When the vending machines had been in the common room, a large crowd always hovered around them — but not particularly for fol-de-rol, as the manager had so quickly assumed... Informal mechanisms always exist and it is dangerous to change things without understanding them.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Vending_quotes Machine_quotes Common_quotes Room_quotes Crowd_quotes Group_quotes Manager_quotes Informal_quotes Mechanism_quotes Change_quotes Risk_quotes Understanding_quotes Cooperation_quotes Danger_quotes Fol-de-rol_quotes Quick_quotes Assume_quotes Exist_quotes

Management Deskilling

“Even though the nth-level manager may have originally been a programmer, which is rare enough, he has almost certainly lost any programming ability by the time he reaches these heights. Given the rapid change of programming techniques and hardware, the higher-level manager becomes obsolete even if he retains the skills he originally had and keeps them sharply honed, for those languages and those machines are no longer in use. In a small survey of working programmers, only 15 percent of the first-line managers were thought to be as skillful as the programmers themselves, and none of the higher-level managers.”
  • Source: Chapter 6. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
Keywords: Manager_quotes Level_quotes Programmer_quotes Deskill_quotes Skill_quotes Ability_quotes Technology_quotes Hardware_quotes Language_quotes Machine_quotes Survey_quotes Originally_quotes Rare_quotes Certainly_quotes Time_quotes Lost_quotes Reach_quotes Height_quotes Rapid_quotes Change_quotes Programming_quotes Technique_quotes Higher_quotes Obsolete_quotes Retain_quotes Keep_quotes Hone_quotes Longer_quotes Use_quotes Small_quotes Working_quotes Line_quotes First_quotes Thought_quotes

E_O_Wilson

Biological Evolution Outrun By Cultural Change

“Because it is... far slower than Lamarckian evolution, biological evolution is always quickly outrun by cultural change.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. On Human Nature (1978). On Human Nature; written by Edward O. Wilson; first edition; published in 1978 by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0674634411.
Keywords: Slow_quotes Lamarckian_quotes Evolution_quotes Biology_quotes Quick_quotes Outrun_quotes Culture_quotes Change_quotes

Knowledge is the Ultimate Emancipator

“Pure knowledge is the ultimate emancipator. It equalizes people and sovereign states, erodes the archaic barriers of superstition and promises to lift the trajectory of cultural evolution. But I do not believe that it can change the ground rules of human behavior or alter the main course of history's predictable trajectory.”
  • Source: Chapter 4 (Emergence). On Human Nature (1978). On Human Nature; written by Edward O. Wilson; first edition; published in 1978 by Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0674634411.
Keywords: Pure_quotes Knowledge_quotes Ultimate_quotes Emancipator_quotes Equalize_quotes People_quotes Sovereign_quotes State_quotes Erode_quotes Archaic_quotes Barrier_quotes Change_quotes Ground_quotes Rule_quotes Human_quotes Behavior_quotes Superstition_quotes Promise_quotes Lift_quotes Trajectory_quotes Culture_quotes Evolution_quotes Believe_quotes Alter_quotes Main_quotes Course_quotes History_quotes Predict_quotes

Stephen_Wolfram

Time

“Time is the inexorable progress of computation. If we think about things in the world as being governed by rules, then what happens in the course of time is those rules get applied... The thing that changes through time is that we've applied these rules more and more and more times.”
  • Source: Spoken by Stephen Wolfram in a video interview with Brian Keating recorded in the YouTube video ‘Stephen Wolfram | My Discovery Changes Everything’ published on channel ‘Dr. Brian Keating’ on 2024-01-19. Video offset 15:16. Online at https://youtu.be/c-RO3vM10Ok?si=i-XspeEtzqA3jPl9 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Time_quotes Inexorable_quotes Progress_quotes Computation_quotes Think_quotes World_quotes Govern_quotes Rule_quotes Happen_quotes Course_quotes Apply_quotes Change_quotes

Paradigm Change

“When you change the paradigm, lots of stuff can come out. In science, the biggest paradigm change that's already happened... which is model things in nature with programs not with equations. For 300 years there was this tradition that [if] you want to make a model in science that's an exact model, write down a mathematical equation. People don't do that anymore in most areas of science... It's fun to see this transition from what seems impossible to what becomes obvious.”
  • Source: Spoken by Stephen Wolfram in a video interview with Brian Keating recorded in the YouTube video ‘What is Time? Stephen Wolfram’s Groundbreaking New Theory’ published on channel ‘Dr. Brian Keating’ on 2024-12-02. Video offset 1:13:57. Online at https://youtu.be/c-RO3vM10Ok?si=i-XspeEtzqA3jPl9 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Change_quotes Paradigm_quotes Science_quotes Happen_quotes Model_quotes Nature_quotes Program_quotes Algorithm_quotes Equation_quotes Year_quotes Tradition_quotes Exact_quotes Mathematics_quotes People_quotes Do_quotes Area_quotes Fun_quotes Transition_quotes Seem_quotes Impossible_quotes Become_quotes Obvious_quotes

Edward_Yourdon

Technology People Change

“Technology changes more rapidly than predicted, but people change more slowly.”
  • Source: Edward Yourdon in the book “Decline and Fall of the American Programmer”. Published in 1992 by Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-13-203670-3. Chapter 11, page 264.
Keywords: Technology_quotes Change_quotes Rapid_quotes Prediction_quotes People_quotes Slow_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Technology Leadership

“The questions that we face today are finally about leadership. Will there be leaders who are able to recognize the historical moment and the choices it presents? Will they find ways to create the organizational conditions in which new visions, new concepts, and a new language of workplace relations can emerge? Will they be able to create organizational innovations that can exploit the unique capacities of the new technology and thus mobilize their organization's productive potential to meet the heightened rigors of global competition? Will there be leaders who understand the crucial role that human beings from each organizational stratum can play in adding value to the production of goods and services? If not, we will be stranded in a new world with old solutions. We will suffer through the unintended consequences of change, because we have failed to understand this technology and how it differs from what came before.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 12. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Technology_quotes Leadership_quotes History_quotes Choice_quotes Organization_quotes Vision_quotes Innovation_quotes Workplace_quotes Language_quotes Exploitation_quotes Potential_quotes Competition_quotes Global_quotes Human_Resources_quotes Production_quotes Goods_quotes Services_quotes World_quotes Obsolescence_quotes Change_quotes Suffering_quotes Stranded_quotes Consequence_quotes Unintentional_quotes Failure_quotes Understanding_quotes Differences_quotes Question_quotes Today_quotes Present_quotes Find_quotes Create_quotes Condition_quotes Concept_quotes Relation_quotes Emerge_quotes Unique_quotes Capability_quotes New_quotes Mobilize_quotes Height_quotes Rigor_quotes Leader_quotes Crucial_quotes Role_quotes Human_quotes Stratum_quotes Play_quotes Add_quotes Value_quotes Old_quotes Solution_quotes

Share the Fruits

“Taylor believed it was necessary to share the fruits of such productivity increases and saw the differential piece-rate system, a central tenet of scientific management, as a method of uniting workers and managers in a bond of common interest. But incentive wages are devilishly hard to administer, and all too often, managers attracted to differential wage schemes succumbed to shortcuts that promised fast gains. Managers would frequently change piece rates as workers learned to meet the standards. This led to the complaints of overwork with which unions relentlessly dogged proponents of Taylorism. Scientific management frequently meant not only that individual effort was simplified (either because of labor-saving equipment or new organizational methods that fragmented tasks into their simplest components), but also that the pace of effort was intensified, thus raising the level of fatigue and stress.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 45. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Fruit_quotes Sharing_quotes Productivity_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Worker_quotes Management_quotes Incentive_quotes Employment_quotes Compensation_quotes Cooperation_quotes Fast_quotes Short_Sighted_quotes Change_quotes Exploitation_quotes Union_quotes Taylorism_quotes Automation_quotes Simplification_quotes Organization_quotes Fatigue_quotes Stress_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Increase_quotes Unite_quotes Bond_quotes Common_quotes Interest_quotes Wage_quotes Devilish_quotes Hard_quotes Administer_quotes Attract_quotes Differential_quotes Scheme_quotes Succum_quotes Shortcut_quotes Promise_quotes Gain_quotes Frequent_quotes Piece_quotes Rate_quotes Learn_quotes Standard_quotes Complaint_quotes Overwork_quotes Relentless_quotes Dogged_quotes Proponent_quotes Individual_quotes Effort_quotes Equipment_quotes Method_quotes Fragment_quotes Task_quotes Component_quotes Pace_quotes Intense_quotes Raise_quotes Level_quotes

Technological Innovations

“History reveals the power of certain technological innovations to transform the mental life of an era -- the feelings, sensibilities, perceptions, expectations, assumptions, and, above all, possibilities that define a community. From the social influence of the medieval castle,' to the coming of the printed book, to the social and physical upheaval associated with the rise of the automobile -- each specific example serves to drive home a similar message. An important technological innovation is not usefully thought of as a unitary cause eliciting a series of discrete effects. Instead, it can be seen as an alteration of the material horizon of our world, with transformative implications for both the contours and the interior texture of our lives. Technology makes the world a new place...”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 388. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: History_quotes Power_quotes Technology_quotes Innovation_quotes Transformation_quotes Feeling_quotes Sensibility_quotes Perception_quotes Expectation_quotes Assumption_quotes Possibility_quotes Community_quotes Society_quotes Influence_quotes Castle_quotes Medieval_quotes Printing_quotes Book_quotes Physical_quotes Upheaval_quotes Automobile_quotes Thinking_quotes Causality_quotes Effect_quotes Alteration_quotes Material_quotes Life_quotes World_quotes Change_quotes Mental_quotes Life_quotes Message_quotes Unitary_quotes Elicit_quotes Series_quotes Discrete_quotes Horizon_quotes Transform_quotes Implication_quotes Contour_quotes Interior_quotes Texture_quotes New_quotes Place_quotes

Technology Change

“To fully grasp the way in which a major new technology can change the world... it is necessary to consider both the manner in which it creates intrinsically new qualities of experience and the way in which new possibilities are engaged by the often-conflicting demands of social, political, and economic interests in order to produce a 'choice.' To concentrate only on intrinsic change and the texture of an emergent mentality is to ignore the real weight of history and the diversity of interests that pervade collective behavior. However, to narrow all discussion of technological change to the play of these interests overlooks the essential power of technology to reorder the rules of the game and thus our experience as players. Moreover, these two dimensions of technological change, the intrinsic and the contingent, need to be understood, not separately, but in relation to one another. The same innovation that abstracts work and increases its intellectual content, thus enhancing the learning of lower level employees... can also, within the context of the choices by which it is adapted, be experienced as a new source of divisiveness and control.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 389. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Technology_quotes Change_quotes World_quotes Consideration_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Quality_quotes Experience_quotes Possibility_quotes Conflict_quotes Demand_quotes Society_quotes Political_quotes Economics_quotes Interest_quotes Choice_quotes Concentration_quotes Emergence_quotes Thinking_quotes Mental_quotes History_quotes Diversity_quotes Collectivism_quotes Behavior_quotes Discussion_quotes Power_quotes Rule_quotes Game_quotes Play_quotes Contingent_quotes Understanding_quotes Relationship_quotes Innovation_quotes Abstraction_quotes Work_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Learning_quotes Employee_quotes Divisiveness_quotes Control_quotes Grasp_quotes Way_quotes Major_quotes New_quotes Manner_quotes Create_quotes Engage_quotes Texture_quotes Real_quotes Weight_quotes Pervade_quotes Narrow_quotes Overlook_quotes Reorder_quotes Player_quotes Dimension_quotes Increase_quotes Enhance_quotes Lower_quotes Level_quotes Context_quotes Adapt_quotes Source_quotes
Retrieved from "https://motleybytes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Change_quotes&oldid=48883"