Quote Of The Week

Quote of the Week 35 " Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills. " ― Arthur Schopenhauer Triggered by  a podcast interview with  Prof. Dr. Dr. Gerhart Roth where he cited the original quote  in German: " Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. " Later  translated as: " Man can do what he wants but he cannot want what he wants. "

Quote of the Week 34 " What's not worth doing is not worth doing well. " ―  Abraham Maslow Triggered by Scott Barry Kaufman's tweet in the context of the promotion of his book " Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization " on a podcast with Jordan B. Peterson. Originally stated in Maslow's book " Maslow on Management " (original title: " Eupsychian Management ") and later referenced in the book  " The Maslow Business Reader " (pg. 17). The complementary statement to the strive for effectiveness and efficiency to be productive : " Do the right things and do them right. " Spending time and resources on the wrong thing is just a waste.  See also: Source:  " Avoid Doing the Wrong things Righter… But, “By What Method?” ".

Quote of the Week 33 " The perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary ." ― Michel Foucault Triggered by Kai Strittmatter citing Foucault  in chapter "Das Auge" of his book " Die Neuerfindung der Diktatur -  Wie China den digitalen Überwachungsstaat aufbaut und uns damit herausfordert "  in German: " Die Perfektion der Macht vermag ihre tatsächliche Ausübung überflüssig zu machen. "

Quote of the Week 32 " It is so easy to be wrong—and to persist in being wrong—when the costs of being wrong are paid by others. " ― Thomas Sowell Triggered by the use of the quote in David Didau's presentation " What if everything you knew about mindsets and resilience was wrong? "  (last slide) where he criticises Carol Dweck's work on the " Mindset " topic (as manifested in her repetitive book).

Quote of the Week 31 "Only dead fish go with the flow." ― Proverb Triggered by an interview with  Prof. Dr. D. Grönemeyer who used this old saying in German: "Nur tote Fische schwimmen mit dem Strom."

Quote of the Week 30 " One cannot not communicate." ― Paul Watzlawick One of the five Axioms of Communication ; also quoted as: "You  cannot not communicate. " Paul Watzlawick was born 100 years ago on July 25, 1921. Triggered by Ursula Moonen's LinkedIn post .   Poster by Erik Spiekermann  on p98a

Quote of the Week 29 "Software doesn’t age like fine wine; it ages like milk.   Software goes bad over time." ― Josh Corman Related quotes: "Code doesn't age like wine, it ages like milk." ― Chris Eng Triggered by Charity Major's use of a variation of the quote   "Software on the shelf doesn't age like wine; it ages like milk." in her  presentation  on Continuous Delivery where she argues that  software should be auto-deployed within 15 minutes after you merge it, with no manual gates.   Photo by Debby Hudson  on Unsplash The use of the full quote by Josh Corman can be found in a 2016 article . A later  blog article  acknowledges prior usage @ Microsoft. The attribution to Chris Eng has been made in a Lenovo presentation  (slide 9) and a CSO Online article  (cited here ). The origin of the quote, however, dates back to at least 2006 when Andy Ozment and Stuart E. Schechter authored a Usenix conference paper titled " Milk or Wi...

Quote of the Week 28 "All perceptions are real, at least to those who own them." ― Joe Folkman Related quotes: "In politics, perception is reality." ― Lee Atwater "Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be something, you might as well be it because that’s the truth in people’s minds." ― Steve Young "Perception is reality, but it may not be actuality, and you have got to be able to keep the difference between that." ― Bill Cowher Triggered by Ron Lichty's use of the quote in many of his  presentations  and the book " Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams " citing Folkman's 1996 book "Turning Feedback into Change!". See also Principle 5 in Folkman's subsequent book " The Power of Feedback ".

Quote of the Week 27 "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." ―  Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (The Leopard / Il Gattopardo) Triggered by Robert Cialdini's use of the quote when promoting the updated edition of his book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" on The Psychology Podcast . The literal translation of the Italian original quote "Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi" is closer to "If we want everything to stay as it is, everything has to change"  "If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change" as discussed here . See also :  > “If you don’t change, time will change you.”

Quote of the Week 26 " Measuring software productivity by lines of code is like measuring progress on an airplane by how much it weighs. " ―  Bill Gates Source: "No Single Metric Captures Productivity" by Ciera Jaspan, Caitlin Sadowski, Google; Chapter 2  in: Caitlin Sadowski, Thomas Zimmermann, "Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering"  See  my Blog On Innovation  for a summary of key takeaways from the book.

Quote of the Week 25 " Innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas . " ―  UK Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) Source: " Innovate to Accumulate " (1994) Triggered by the inflationary usage of the term " innovation " lacking a universally accepted definition. Or as Graham West already put it back in 1994: "Sadly, the word “innovation”, in recent usage, has become so hackneyed it seriously runs the risk of metamorphosizing into an expression of a doubtful quality." See also my Blog On Innovation article for a collection of alternative definitions of the term.

Quote of the Week 24 " Realize that you are simultaneously everything and nothing ." ―  Ray Dalio First part of one of the many principles Dalio published in his book " Principles " which is available as e-book in the corresponding free app.  See also Dalio's corresponding blog and LinkedIn article .

Quote of the Week 23 " Correlation does not imply causation. " ―  Any savvy statistician Triggered by too many news headlines and presentations that cite misinterpreted research studies' results & claims.  See for example this blog or Wikipedia for explanation. Source:   Lucy D'Agostino McGowan, " Hill for the data scientist: an xkcd story "

2nd Quote of the Week 22 " Everyone is conservative about what he knows best . " ―  Robert Conquest Originally stated as "Everyone is a reactionary about subjects he understands." Related to Clarke's 1st Law . Triggered by a comment on Ethan Mollick's tweet . Source: Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics  and Tracking down Conquest’s law on organisations .

Quote of the Week 22 " But don't ask me what I think of you,   I might not give the answer that you want me to. " ―  Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Song Lyrics "Oh Well, Part 1" Source:  " Oh Well" ( Lyrics ) See also:  W ikipedia article

Quote of the Week 21 " Don't talk unless you can improve the silence. " ―  Jorge Luis Borges

Quote of the Week 20 " ... there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.  We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.  But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. ... " ―  Donald Rumsfeld Triggered by Ethan Mollick's tweet  and follow-up tweet . See also:  W ikipedia

Quote of the Week 18 " Doubt grows with knowledge. " ―  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German original: "Eigentlich weiß man nur, wenn man wenig weiß. Mit dem Wissen wächst der Zweifel." ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Quote of the Week 17 "The better we get at getting better, the faster we will get better." ― Doug Engelbart Source:  Inventor Of Computer Mouse Dies; Doug Engelbart Was 88

Quote of the Week 16 " Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." ― Cited by Dwight D. Eisenhower Source:  Quote Investigator

Quote of the Week 15 " In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is. " ―  Benjamin Brewster Source:  Quote Investigator

Quote of the Week 14 " There is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong . " ―  H. L. Mencken Often paraphrased as “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” Somewhat related: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." ― attributed to Albert Einstein

Quote of the Week 13 " If you want people to think, give them intent, not instruction. " ―  David Marquet Or go one step further. "If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2nd Quote of the Week 12 " Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. " ―  Grey's Law A variant of Hanlon's Razor: "Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice." Influenced by the third law of Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Quote of the Week 12 " In Danger and Deep Distress, the Middle Way Spells Certain Death. " ―  Friedrich Freiherr von Logau "In Gefahr und großer Not  bringt der Mittelweg den Tod." ― Friedrich Freiherr von Logau See also:  https://falschzitate.blogspot.com/2018/04/in-gefahr-und-groter-not-bringt-der.html  (German)