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From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 William_Bayliss
- 2 Arthur_Bloch
- 3 Francis_Chisholm
- 4 Peter_Drucker
- 5 English_Proverbs
- 6 David_Epstein
- 7 Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe
- 8 Nelson_Goodman
- 9 Douglas_Hofstadter
- 10 Carl_Jung
- 11 Edward_A_Murphy
- 12 J_Robert_Oppenheimer
- 13 Alan_Perlis
- 14 Robert_M_Pirsig
- 15 Earl_Mac_Rauch
- 16 Saul-Paul_Sirag
- 17 Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
- 18 Robert_Watson-Watt
- 19 Stephen_Wolfram
- 20 Steven_Wright
William_Bayliss
Mistakes
“But at the same time, there must never be the least hesitation in giving up a position the moment it is shown to be untenable. It is not going too far to say that the greatness of a scientific investigator does not rest on the fact of his having never made a mistake, but rather on his readiness to admit that he has done so, whenever the contrary evidence is cogent enough.”
- Source: Sir William Bayliss, Principles of General Physiology (1915), x.xi.
- Keywords: Mistake_quotes Error_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Ego_quotes Time_quotes Hesitation_quotes Give_quotes Position_quotes Moment_quotes Show_quotes Untenable_quotes Go_quotes Far_quotes Say_quotes Great_quotes Science_quotes Investigator_quotes Rest_quotes Fact_quotes Ready_quotes Admit_quotes Contrary_quotes Evidence_quotes Cogent_quotes
Arthur_Bloch
Murphy's Law
“If anything can go wrong, it will.”
- Source: Attributed to Edward A Murphy, reported in the book “Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong” written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by [Price/Stern/Sloan](Los Angeles, California). ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter ‘Murphology’, page 11.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Engineering_quotes Anything_quotes Can_quotes Go_quotes Wrong_quotes Murphy(topic)_quotes Law_quotes
Murphy's Law Corollary 3
“If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.”
- Source: Attributed to Edward A Murphy, reported in the book “Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong” written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter Murphology, page 11.
- See Also:
Murphy's Law Corollary 5
“Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.”
- Source: Attributed to Edward A Murphy, reported in the book “Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong” written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter Murphology, page 11.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Left_quotes Themselves_quotes Tend_quotes Go_quotes Bad_quotes Worse_quotes Law_quotes Murphy(topic)_quotes
Scott's First Law
“No matter what goes wrong, it will probably look right.”
- Source: Attributed to Scott, reported in the book “Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong” written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter Murphology, page 14.
- Notes: Who Scott was has not been reliably identified.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Murphy(topic)_quotes Law_quotes Matter_quotes Go_quotes Wrong_quotes Probably_quotes Look_quotes Right_quotes
Finagle's First Law
“If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.”
- Source: Attributed to a fictional character named Finagle, reported in the book "Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong" written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter Murphology, page 15.
- Notes: Often attributed to a fictional character named Finagle, its true origin remains uncertain and likely derived from multiple sources. See https://www.devx.com/terms/finagles-law/.
- Keywords: Murphy(topic)_quotes Law_quotes Experiment_quotes Work_quotes Go_quotes Wrong_quotes Something_quotes
Francis_Chisholm
Chisholm's 1st Law of Human Interaction
“Chisholm's 1st Law of Human Interaction. If anything can go wrong, it will.
Corollary: If anything just can’t go wrong, it will anyway.”
- Source: From the essay “The Chisholm Effect” by Francis P. Chisholm, included in the anthology “A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown: Essays for a Scientific Age” edited by Robert A. Baker, published by Prentice Hall in 1982. ISBN: 0138526087, ISBN: 978-0138526085.
- Keywords: Law_quotes Chisholm(topic)_quotes Human_quotes Interaction_quotes Anything_quotes Go_quotes Wrong_quotes Anyway_quotes
Chisholm's 2nd Law of Human Interaction
“Chisholm's 2nd Law of Human Interaction. When things are going well, something will go wrong.
Corollary 1: When things just can’t get any worse, they will.
Corollary 2: Anytime things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.”
- Source: From the essay “The Chisholm Effect” by Francis P. Chisholm, included in the anthology “A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown: Essays for a Scientific Age” edited by Robert A. Baker, published by Prentice Hall in 1982. ISBN: 0138526087, ISBN: 978-0138526085.
Peter_Drucker
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
English_Proverbs
Going Through Hell
“If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going.”
- Source: Anonymous, although often attributed to Winston Churchill, but he is unlikely to have said it. For an interesting research and background on the saying, see https://quoteinvestigator.com
/2014/09/14/ keep-going/ (retrieved 2018-04-19).
- See Also:
- Keywords: Go_quotes Hell_quotes Keep_quotes
David_Epstein
Yourself Yesterday
“Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you. Everyone progresses at a different rate, so don’t let anyone else make you feel behind. You probably don’t even know where exactly you’re going, so feeling behind doesn’t help.”
- Source: David Epstein in the book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”. Published 2019 by Riverhead Books. Conclusion, page 290. ISBN 978-0735214484.
Giant Undertakings
“Since the 1990s, researcher Bent Flyvbjerg has kept a database that tracks giant undertakings... Only 8.5 percent of projects finished on time and on budget; 0.5 percent did that and delivered the prophesied benefits. Almost every major infrastructure project goes over budget, but at least not by as much as IT projects, which have a greater tendency to go hundreds of percent over budget. The pattern of disaster that Flyvbjerg has documented is relatively simple: With few constraints, exciting projects get too large too fast, going from big idea to giant endeavor extremely quickly.”
- Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 14. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
- Keywords: Since_quotes Research_quotes Database_quotes Track_quotes Giant_quotes Undertaking_quotes Percent_quotes Project_quotes Finish_quotes Time_quotes Budget_quotes Deliver_quotes Prophecy_quotes Benefit_quotes Major_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Go_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Great_quotes Tendency_quotes Hundred_quotes Over_quotes Pattern_quotes Disaster_quotes Documentation_quotes Relative_quotes Simple_quotes Few_quotes Constraint_quotes Excited_quotes Large_quotes Fast_quotes Big_quotes Idea_quotes Endeavor_quotes Quick_quotes
Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe
Preferred to Live With
“Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord preferred to live with whores & sinners, seeing I go in for that myself.”
- Source: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in “Venetian Epigrams” published 1790. As translated by Jerome Rothenberg.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Surprise_quotes Christ_quotes Lord_quotes Prefer_quotes Live_quotes Whore_quotes Sinner_quotes Go_quotes
Nelson_Goodman
Simple Theories
“For if as scientists we seek simplicity, then obviously we try the simplest surviving theory first, and retreat from it only when it proves false. Not this course, but any other, requires explanation. If you want to go somewhere quickly, and several alternate routes are equally likely to be open, no one asks why you take the shortest. The simplest theory is to be chosen not because it is the most likely to be true but because it is scientifically the most rewarding among equally likely alternatives. We aim at simplicity and hope for truth.”
- Source: Nelson Goodman, Problems and Projects (1972), 352.
- Keywords: Science_quotes Simplicity_quotes Survival_quotes Theory_quotes Falsification_quotes Explanation_quotes Quick_quotes Reward_quotes Alternative_quotes Hope_quotes Truth_quotes Occams_Razor_quotes Retreat_quotes Proof_quotes False_quotes Course_quotes Go_quotes Several_quotes Route_quotes Equal_quotes Probable_quotes Likely_quotes
Douglas_Hofstadter
Stepping Back
“What AI sorely lacks is programs which can step back and take a look at what is going on, and with this perspective, reorient themselves to the task at hand.”
- Source: Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Basic Books, New York, NY. ISBN 13: 978-046502656-2. ISBN 10: 046502656-7. Chapter 18. Page 613.
Thinking At A Different Level
“It is when something goes wrong that it is important to be able to think on different levels.”
- Source: Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Basic Books, New York, NY. ISBN 13: 978-046502656-2. ISBN 10: 046502656-7. Chapter 10. Page 294.
- Keywords: Wrong_quotes Importance_quotes Think_quotes Level_quotes Differences_quotes Something_quotes Go_quotes
Carl_Jung
The Path
“There is only one way and that is your way. You seek the path? I warn you away from my own. It can also be the wrong way for you. May each go his own way. I will be no savior, no lawgiver, no master teacher unto you. You are no longer little children.”
- Source: Written by Carl G. Jung in ‘The Red Book’, also known as ‘Liber Novus’, which was originally written from 1914 to 1930. It was first published in 2009 by W. W. Norton in a facsimile edition, complete with an English translation. The edition used here is the book ‘The Red Book: Liber Novus: A Reader's Edition’, written by C. G. Jung, edited with an introduction by Sonu Shamdasani, translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck, and Sonu Shamdasani; published by W. W. Norton in 2012; ISBN 978-0393089080; Page 125.
- See Also:
Edward_A_Murphy
Murphy's Law
Popular Version: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” Original Version First Report: “If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way” Original Version Second Report: "If there is any way to do it wrong, he will."
- Source:
- Attributed to Edward A Murphy, reported in the book “Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong” written by Arthur Bloch, first edition publish in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288.
- Attributed to Edward A Murphy, reported in the article “The Science of Murphy’s Law” written by Robert A. J. Matthews, published in 'Scientific America, volume 276 number 4, April 1997, DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0497-88.
- Attributed to Edward A Murphy, reported in the book “The Making of a Scientist” by Anne Roe, published in 1953 by Dodd and Mead, New York, NY. ISBN 10: 0837171512. ISBN 13: 9780837171517.
- Notes: An idea expressed by Edward Aloysius Murphy Jr. in 1949 in reference to rocket sled engineering work.
- See Also:
J_Robert_Oppenheimer
World Going to Hell
“It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.”
- Source: Attributed to Oppenheimer by Alan Watts in Play to Live: Lectures of Alan Watts (1982) by Alan Watts [Author], Mark Watts [Editor, Photographer]Robert Oppenheimer.
Alan_Perlis
Useful Software Systems
“We recognize that a practical problem of considerable difficulty and importance has arisen: The successful design, production and maintenance of useful software systems. The importance is obvious and the more so since we see only greater growth in demands and requirements in the future. The consequences of poor performance, poor design, instability and mismatching of promise and performance are not going to be limited to the computing fraternity, or even their nearest neighbors, but will affect considerable sections of our society whose ability to forgive is inversely proportional to their ignorance of the difficulties we face. The source of difficulty is distributed through the whole problem, easy to identify, and yet its cure is hard to pinpoint so that systematic improvement can be gotten.”
- Source: Alan Jay Perlis in a report entitled Software Engineering: Report of a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. Chaired by Friedrich Ludwig Bauer. Edited by P. Naur; B. Randell. Conference held 1968-10-07 through 1968-10-11 in Garmisch, Germany. OCLC: 35337842. See http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/index.html ; http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/nato1968.PDF ; https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1102020 ; https://books.google.com/books/about/Software_engineering.html?id=Uc9QAAAAYAAJ . Page 78, Keynote address.
- Keywords: Usefulness_quotes Practical_quotes Problem_quotes Difficulty_quotes Importance_quotes Arise_quotes Success_quotes Design_quotes Production_quotes Maintain_quotes Software_quotes System_quotes Obvious_quotes Great_quotes Growth_quotes Demand_quotes Requirements_quotes Consequence_quotes Poor_quotes Performance_quotes Instability_quotes Mismatch_quotes Promise_quotes Go_quotes Limitation_quotes Computing_quotes Fraternity_quotes Near_quotes Neighbor_quotes Affect_quotes Considerable_quotes Section_quotes Society_quotes Ability_quotes Forgiveness_quotes Inverse_quotes Proportion_quotes Ignorance_quotes Face_quotes Source_quotes Distributed_quotes Easy_quotes Identify_quotes Cure_quotes Hard_quotes Pinpoint_quotes Improve_quotes
Robert_M_Pirsig
Traditional Scientific Method
“Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20-20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.”
- Source: Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), 251.
Earl_Mac_Rauch
There You Are
“No need to be mean. 'Cause, remember: no matter where you go, there you are.”
- Source: Rauch/1984. Source: Movie. Written by: Earl Mac Rauch. Entitled: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Language: en. Release date: 1984. Directed by: {W. D. Richter}. Distributed by:20th Century Fox. Country: USA. Character: Buckaroo Banzai. Performed by: Peter Weller. Notes: Sherwood Productions was the production company.
- Keywords: Need_quotes Mean_quotes Memory_quotes Travel_quotes Go_quotes Remember_quotes Matter_quotes Causation_quotes
Saul-Paul_Sirag
Heart of Science
“The essential point in science is not a complicated mathematical formalism or a ritualized experimentation. Rather the heart of science is a kind of shrewd honesty that springs from really wanting to know what the hell is going on!”
- Source: Words of Saul-Paul Sirag as reported in the book “Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics” written by Nick Herbert, page 268, published by Doubleday in 1985. ISBN 978-0385187046.
Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
Systematic Soldiering
“The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their employers ignorant of how fast work can be done. So universal is soldiering for this purpose, or under any of the ordinary systems of compensating labor, who does not devote a considerable part of his time to studying just how slowly he can work and still convince his employer that he is going at a good pace.”
- Source: F.W. Taylor (1903) "Shop management; a paper read before the American society of mechanical engineers, " in: Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 24: 1337-1480. p. 1351.
- Keywords: Productivity_quotes Soldiering_quotes Ignorance_quotes Employment_quotes Labor_quotes Deception_quotes Worker_quotes Great_quotes Part_quotes Systematic_quotes Men_quotes Deliberate_quotes Keep_quotes Employer_quotes Fast_quotes Work_quotes Done_quotes Universal_quotes Purpose_quotes Ordinary_quotes System_quotes Compensation_quotes Devote_quotes Considerable_quotes Time_quotes Study_quotes Slow_quotes Convince_quotes Go_quotes Pace_quotes Good_quotes
Robert_Watson-Watt
Give Them Third Best
“Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes.”
- Source: Quoted in the book 'A Radar History of World War II: Technical and Military Imperatives (1st ed.)' by L. Brown, (1999), published by Taylog and Francis.
- Keywords: Third_quotes Second_quotes Best_quotes Go_quotes Give_quotes Later_quotes Never_quotes Come_quotes
Stephen_Wolfram
Future Jumping
“There’s a certain robustness to time when viewed in these computational terms. There’s no way to ‘jump ahead’ in time; the only way to find out what will happen in the future is to go through the irreducible computational steps to get there.”
- Source: Stephen Wolfram. “On the Nature of Time” published 2024-10-08 at https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2024/10/on-the-nature-of-time/.
Steven_Wright
Coffee
“My mind goes crazy on coffee... I drink coffee and then I just, I'm like a receptionist for my mind. I just write down things that come into my head.”
- Source: Weight, Steven (2024). A video clip entitled "I'm Like A Receptionist For My Mind - Steven Wright, After A Few Cups Of Coffee". Posted on [youtube.com] channel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". Posting date circa 2024-01. At video time 5:00.
- Keywords: Mind_quotes Go_quotes Crazy_quotes Coffee_quotes Drink_quotes Receptionist_quotes Writing_quotes Come_quotes Head_quotes
