Invention quotes

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Douglas_Adams

Scientific Method

“The invention of the scientific method and science is, I'm sure we'll all agree, the most powerful intellectual idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and investigating and understanding and challenging the world around us that there is, and it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked. If it withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it doesn't withstand the attack then down it goes. Religion doesn't seem to work like that.”
  • Source: Douglas Adams. From the speech entitled "Is There an Artificial God?"; spoken on 1998-09; spoken at the "Digital Biota 2" conference' held at Magdelene College Cambridge; online at http://www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/ (accessed 2017).
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Invention_quotes Science_quotes Agreement_quotes Power_quotes Intellectual_quotes Idea_quotes Framework_quotes Thinking_quotes Investigation_quotes Understanding_quotes Challenge_quotes World_quotes Premise_quotes Attack_quotes Fight_quotes Day_quotes Down_quotes Religion_quotes

Aesop

Necessity and Invention

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Keywords: Necessity_quotes Mother_quotes Invention_quotes Crow_quotes

Isaac_Asimov

Science and Mathematics

“It is quite possible that mathematics was invented in the ancient Middle East to keep track of tax receipts and grain stores. How odd that out of this should come a subtle scientific language that can effectively describe and predict the most arcane aspects of the Universe.”
  • 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 68, page 265. ISBN 1-555-84111-2.
Keywords: Possible_quotes Mathematics_quotes Invention_quotes Ancient_quotes MiddleEast_quotes Keep_quotes Track_quotes Tax_quotes Receipt_quotes Grain_quotes Store_quotes Odd_quotes Come_quotes Subtle_quotes Scientific_quotes Language_quotes Effective_quotes Describe_quotes Predict_quotes Arcane_quotes Aspect_quotes Universe_quotes

Francis_Bello

Facts Alone

“Facts alone, no matter how numerous or verifiable, do not automatically arrange themselves into an intelligible, or truthful, picture of the world. It is the task of the human mind to invent a theoretical framework to account for them.”
  • Source: Francis Bello, In Francis Bello, Lawrence Lessing and George A.W. Boehm, Great American Scientists (1960, 1961), 116.
Keywords: Fact_quotes Confirmation_quotes Truth_quotes Theory_quotes Abstraction_quotes Numerous_quotes Verify_quotes Automatic_quotes Arrange_quotes Intelligible_quotes Picture_quotes World_quotes Task_quotes Human_quotes Mind_quotes Invention_quotes Framework_quotes Account_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

Kicking Ass

"Management is a complex enough thing to defy simple definition, but that nuance was lost on one senior manager we encountered at a professional society meeting in London. He summed up his entire view of the subject with this statement: 'Management is kicking ass.' This equates to the view that managers provide all the thinking and the people underneath them just carry out their bidding. Again, that might be workable for cheeseburger production, but not for any effort for which people do the work with their heads rather than their hands. Everyone in such an environment has got to have the brain in gear. You may be able to kick people to make them active, but not to make them creative, inventive, and thoughtful. Even if kicking people in the backside did boost their short-term productivity, it might not be useful in the long run. There is nothing more discouraging to any worker than the sense that his own motivation is inadequate and has to be 'supplemented' by that of the boss. The saddest thing about this management approach is that it’s almost always superfluous. You seldom need to take Draconian measures to keep your people working; most of them love their work. You may even have to take steps sometimes to make them work less, and thus get more meaningful work done."
  • 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: Management_quotes Complexity_quotes Manager_quotes Nuance_quotes Kicking_quotes Thinking_quotes Worker_quotes Cheeseburger_quotes Production_quotes Environment_quotes Brain_quotes Activity_quotes Creativity_quotes Invention_quotes Productivity_quotes Short_Term_quotes Long_Run_quotes Discouragement_quotes Motivation_quotes Inadequate_quotes Superfluous_quotes Draconian_quotes Work_quotes Meaning_quotes

Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra

Dijkstra Algorithm

“What is the shortest way to travel from Rotterdam to Groningen, in general: from given city to given city. It is the algorithm for the shortest path, which I designed in about twenty minutes. One morning I was shopping in Amsterdam with my young fiancée, and tired, we sat down on the café terrace to drink a cup of coffee and I was just thinking about whether I could do this, and I then designed the algorithm for the shortest path. As I said, it was a twenty-minute invention. In fact, it was published in ’59, three years late. The publication is still readable, it is, in fact, quite nice. One of the reasons that it is so nice was that I designed it without pencil and paper. I learned later that one of the advantages of designing without pencil and paper is that you are almost forced to avoid all avoidable complexities. Eventually that algorithm became, to my great amazement, one of the cornerstones of my fame.”
  • Source: Dijkstra (2001), in an interview with Philip L. Frana. (OH 330; Communications of the ACM 53(8):41–47)
Keywords: Short_quotes Travel_quotes City_quotes Path_quotes Coffee_quotes Thinking_quotes Algorithm_quotes Invention_quotes Innovation_quotes Publication_quotes Pencil_quotes Paper_quotes Complexity_quotes Fame_quotes Design_quotes Advantage_quotes Amazement_quotes Cornerstone_quotes

Gordon_Glegg

Realms of the Design Mind

“The mind of the designer has three realms of activity... the inventive, the artistic, and the logical or rational.”

  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 2, page 18.
Keywords: Mind_quotes Design_quotes Realm_quotes Activity_quotes Invention_quotes Art_quotes Logic_quotes Rational_quotes

Engineers and Designers Are Human

“Throughout this book we have talked about 'designers' and 'engineers' and sought, by analysing their work, to find general and helpful maxims. But there is a danger in doing this, for we may forget that a 'designer' or 'engineer' is first and foremost a human being. A human being who designs or engineers has, in addition, a wide range of complicated and interacting emotions. It is easy to become emotionally involved in a new invention and so resent criticism of it even when that criticism, if heeded, would turn a failure into a success. Confidence may be blinded by conceit or undermined by an inferiority complex. History has shown that many new inventions were not inventions at all; they were re-inventions. The idea was not new but the determination to press through with it was. Character is the foundation of ability. Develop as large a safety margin as you can against such things as laziness, impatience, prejudice and arrogance and all the other human failings that inhibit constructive achievement in all spheres, especially that of creative engineering design.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 6, page 92.
Keywords: Design_quotes Engineering_quotes Work_quotes Maxim_quotes Danger_quotes Forget_quotes Humanity_quotes Complexity_quotes Emotion_quotes Invention_quotes Criticism_quotes Resentment_quotes Failure_quotes Success_quotes Confidence_quotes Conceit_quotes Inferior_quotes History_quotes Idea_quotes Determination_quotes Character_quotes Ability_quotes Safe_quotes Lazy_quotes Impatience_quotes Prejudice_quotes Arrogance_quotes Achievement_quotes Sphere_quotes Creativity_quotes Analyze_quotes Human_quotes Interacting_quotes Heed_quotes Blind_quotes Reinvention_quotes Inhibit_quotes Constructive_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

Time Tyrant

“Time is our tyrant. We are chronically aware of the moving minute hand, even of the moving second hand. We have to be. There are trains to be caught, clocks to be punched, tasks to be done in specified periods, records to be broken by fractions of a second, machines that set the pace and have to be kept up with. Our consciousness of the smallest units of time is now acute. To us, for example, the moment 8.17 a.m. means something — something very important, if it happens to be the starting time of our daily train. To our ancestors, such an odd eccentric instant was without significance — did not even exist. In inventing the locomotive, Watt and Stevenson were part inventors of time.”
  • Source: Aldous Huxley (1936). An essay entitled Time and the Machine within the book The Olive Tree and Other Essays, published by Harper and Brothers, ASIN: B08VNTBLY4.
Keywords: Time_quotes Tyrant_quotes Chronic_quotes Aware_quotes Hand_quotes Train_quotes Clock_quotes Task_quotes Period_quotes Record_quotes Fraction_quotes Machine_quotes Pace_quotes Consciousness_quotes Unit_quotes Acute_quotes Start_quotes Daily_quotes Ancestor_quotes Eccentric_quotes Instant_quotes Significance_quotes Existence_quotes Invention_quotes Locomotive_quotes Watt_quotes Stevenson_quotes

Alan_Kay

Invent the Future

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

  • Source: Alan Kay (1971) at a 1971 meeting between Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) scientists and Xerox planners. As reported in the Financial Times (1 Nov 1982). Also as reported by Alan Kay, in an email on Sept 17, 1998 to Peter W. Lount.
Keywords: Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Invention_quotes Best_quotes Way_quotes

Erwin_Schrödinger

Objective Nature

“While the direct sensual perception of the phenomenon tells us nothing as to its objective physical nature (or what we usually call so) and has to be discarded from the outset as a source of information, yet the theoretical picture we obtain eventually rests entirely on a complicated array of various informations, all obtained by direct sensual perception. It resides upon them, it is pieced together from them, yet it cannot really be said to contain them. In using the picture we usually forget about them, except in the quite general way that we know our idea of a light-wave is not a haphazard invention of a crank but is based on experiment.”
  • Source: Erwin Schrödinger in the book “Mind and Matter”, chapter 6. Contained within the anthology “What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”. Published in 1992 and reprinted in 2013 by Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. ISBN: 9781107604667. Online at <http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/schrodinger-what-is-life-mind-matter-auto-sketches.pdf> retrieved 2024. Note: “Mind and Matter” originally published separately in 1944.
Keywords: Direct_quotes Sensual_quotes Perception_quotes Tell_quotes Nothing_quotes Objective_quotes Physical_quotes Nature_quotes Call_quotes Discard_quotes Outset_quotes Source_quotes Information_quotes Theoretical_quotes Picture_quotes Obtain_quotes Eventual_quotes Rest_quotes Entire_quotes Complicated_quotes Array_quotes Reside_quotes Piece_quotes Together_quotes Say_quotes Contain_quotes Forget_quotes Except_quotes General_quotes Way_quotes Knowledge_quotes Idea_quotes Light_quotes Wave_quotes Haphazard_quotes Invention_quotes Crank_quotes Base_quotes Experiment_quotes

Herbert_Simon

Top Down or Bottom Up

“Alternatives are also open, in organizing the design process, as to how far development of possible subsystems will be carried before the overall coordinating design is developed in detail, or vice-versa, how far the overall design should be carried before various components, or possible components, are developed. These alternatives of design are familiar to architects. They are familiar also to composers, who must decide how far the architectonics of a musical structure will be evolved before some of the component musical themes and other elements have been invented. Computer programmers face the same choices, between working downward from executive routines to subroutines or upward from component subroutines to a coordinating executive.”
Keywords: Alternative_quotes Open_quotes Organize_quotes Design_quotes Process_quotes Far_quotes Development_quotes Subsystem_quotes Carry_quotes Coordination_quotes Detail_quotes Vice-versa_quotes Overall_quotes Component_quotes Possibility_quotes Familiar_quotes Composer_quotes Decision_quotes Architectonic_quotes Music_quotes Theme_quotes Element_quotes Invention_quotes Computer_quotes Programmer_quotes Face_quotes Choice_quotes Work_quotes Downward_quotes Executive_quotes Routine_quotes Subroutine_quotes Upward_quotes Structure_quotes Evolve_quotes

Max_Tegmark

Quantum Impact

“We virtually ignore the astonishing range of scientific and practical applications that quantum mechanics undergirds: today an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. gross national product is based on inventions made possible by quantum mechanics, from semiconductors in computer chips to lasers in compact-disc players, magnetic resonance imaging in hospitals, and much more.”
  • Source: Max Tegmark and John Archibald Wheeler; Scientific American, February 2001
Keywords: Virtual_quotes Ignore_quotes Astonishment_quotes Range_quotes Science_quotes Practical_quotes Application_quotes Quantum_quotes Mechanics_quotes Physics_quotes Undergird_quotes Today_quotes GDP_quotes Invention_quotes Possibility_quotes Semiconductor_quotes Computer_quotes Chip_quotes Laser_quotes CD_quotes Magnetic_quotes Resonance_quotes Image_quotes Hospital_quotes Estimate_quotes
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