Complex Problems Quotes:

Not all complex problems have easy solutions; so says science (so warns science.)

- Mark Z. Danielewski

topic: Problem, Easy, Complex Problems

Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn't work.

- H. L. Mencken

topic: Simple, Problem, Complexes, Complex Problems, Simple Solutions

For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.

- H. L. Mencken

topic: Freedom, Simple, Ethics, Complex Problems, Simple Solutions

Beware of people preaching simple solutions to complex problems. If the answer was easy someone more intelligent would have thought of it a long time ago - complex problems invariably require complex and difficult solutions.

- Steve Herbert

topic: Wisdom, Intelligent, Simple, Complex Problems, Simple Solutions

When the solution is simple, God is answering.

- Albert Einstein

topic: Love, Life, Positive, Solved Problems, Mystery Of God

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

- Vince Lombardi

topic: Motivational, Teamwork, Football, Inspirational Football, Inspirational Football Coach

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.

- Laurence J. Peter

source: "Peter's Almanac". Book by Laurence J. Peter. Entry for September 24, 1982.

topic: Business, Intelligent, Thinking, Solved Problems, Complex Problems

Even the most complex problem is resolved in the end. Because if there's a question, there also is an answer.

- Kim Joon

topic: Answers, Problem, Ends, Complex Problems

People think there's a single solution to complex problems, and the solution is often making an enemy of a group of people - pulling back and rejecting the other.

- Duncan Green

source: Source: www.macleans.ca

topic: Thinking, People, Enemy, Complex Problems

All experience has taught us that solving a complex problem uncovers hidden assumptions and ever more knowledge, trade-offs that we didn't anticipate but which can make the difference between meeting a deadline and going into research mode for a year, etc.

- Erik Naggum

topic: Differences, Years, Etc, Complex Problems, Trade Offs

There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.

- H. L. Mencken

source: H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.443, Vintage

topic: Business, Simple Solutions, Neat And Tidy, Solved Problems, Complex Problems

There is always a well-known solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.

- H. L. Mencken

source: "The Divine Afflatus". New York Evening Mail, November 16, 1917; reprinted in H. L. Mencken "Prejudices: Second Series", 1920, and in "A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing" edited by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

topic: Funny Inspirational, Freedom, Business, Complex Problems, Wrong Answers

Diverse groups of problem solvers outperformed the groups of the best individuals at solving complex problems. The reason: the diverse groups got stuck less often than the smart individuals, who tended to think similarly.

- Scott E. Page

topic: Smart, Thinking, Collaboration, Problem Solvers, Complex Problems

Well, take it from an old hand: the only reason it would be easier to program in C is that you can't easily express complex problems in C, so you don't.

- Erik Naggum

topic: Hands, Would Be, Problem, Complex Problems

Physics is becoming so unbelievably complex that it is taking longer and longer to train a physicist. It is taking so long, in fact, to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.

- Eugene Wigner

topic: Long, Facts, Becoming, Physical Science, Complex Problems

The drive toward complex technical achievement offers a clue to why the U.S. is good at space gadgetry and bad at slum problems.

- John Kenneth Galbraith

source: The Saturday Evening Post, 1968.

topic: Technology, Space, Achievement, Modern Technology, Complex Problems

Occupying my mind with complex problems has been my best and most powerful and most reliable defense against my mental illness.

- Elyn Saks

source: "A tale of mental illness — from the inside". TED Talk, www.ted.com. June, 2012.

topic: Powerful, Mind, Defense, Complex Problems

Our goal is to try to bring a calm and simplicity to what are incredibly complex problems so that you're not aware really of the solution.

- Jonathan Ive

topic: Philosophical, Goal, Simplicity, Complex Problems, Simplicity In Design

The deep paradox uncovered by AI research: the only way to deal efficiently with very complex problems is to move away from pure logic.... Most of the time, reaching the right decision requires little reasoning.... Expert systems are, thus, not about reasoning: they are about knowing.... Reasoning takes time, so we try to do it as seldom as possible. Instead we store the results of our reasoning for later reference.

- Daniel Crevier

topic: Moving, Knowing, Decision, Complex Problems

Our science is like a store filled with the most subtle intellectual devices for solving the most complex problems, and yet we are almost incapable of applying the elementary principles of rational thought.

- Simone Weil

source: Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.156, Wipf and Stock Publishers

topic: Science, Intellectual, Principles, Complex Problems, Rational Thought

It should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future. Only an America which has fully educated its citizens is fully capable of tackling the complex problems and perceiving the hidden dangers of the world in which we live. And only an America which is growing and prospering economically can sustain the worldwide defenses of freedom, while demonstrating to all concerned the opportunities of our system and society.

- John F. Kennedy

topic: Home, Opportunity, Practice, Complex Problems, Tackling

As an expert, I can deal with complex problems. As a mother it is much, much harder.

- Rosalind Wiseman

source: "'Queen Bee' guide to not feeling stung". Interview with Nora Krug, www.washingtonpost.com. November 8, 2010.

topic: Mother, Experts, Problem, Complex Problems

It is absurd to imagine that any child will be able to earn a living, let alone contribute to resolving our world's complex problems, without knowing how to read and write. My foundation supports the National Writing Project so that teachers can be more effective in their efforts to improve literacy for all students.

- Isabel Allende

topic: Teacher, Children, Writing, Complex Problems

Pat answers to complex problems are the hallmark of intellectual mediocrity

- Theodosius Dobzhansky

topic: Intellectual, Mediocrity, Answers, Complex Problems

I'd be wary of simple solutions to complex problems.

- Jeb Bush

source: "Is the Age of Bush Over? Jeb Needs to Step Up His Game If He Is Going to Take Back the GOP" By David Paul, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 29, 2013.

topic: Simple, Problem, Complexes, Complex Problems, Simple Solutions

When we seek inspiration to help make decisions, the Lord gives gentle promptings. These require us to think, to exercise faith, to work, to struggle at times and to act. Seldom does the whole answer to a decisively important matter or complex problem come all at once. More often, it comes a piece at a time, without the end in sight.

- Richard G. Scott

topic: Struggle, Inspiration, Exercise, Complex Problems

The essential function of the (design) profession in our society is to enhance and cultivate communications toward: Easier understanding of ideas and complex problems, in the shortest possible time and higher visual and auditory retention of data.

- Will Burtin

topic: Communication, Data, Ideas, Complex Problems, Auditory

Moreover, such a body freed from nervous tension and over-fatigue is the ideal shelter provided by nature for housing a well-balanced mind that is always fully capable of successfully meeting all of the complex problems of modern living.

- Joseph Pilates

topic: Mind, Body, Shelter, Complex Problems

In the past, [medicalization]has been portrayed as something that doctors inflict on a passive and un-suspecting world - an expansion of the Medical Empire. But in reality, it seems that these reductionist bio-medical stories can appeal to us all, because complex problems often have depressingly-complex causes, and the solutions can be taxing, and unsatisfactory.

- Ben Goldacre

topic: Reality, Past, Doctors, Complex Problems, Bios

Complexity has and will maintain a strong fascination for many people. It is true that we live in a complex world and strive to solve inherently complex problems, which often do require complex mechanisms. However, this should not diminish our desire for elegant solutions, which convince by their clarity and effectiveness. Simple, elegant solutions are more effective, but they are harder to find than complex ones, and they require more time, which we too often believe to be unaffordable

- Niklaus Wirth

topic: Strong, Believe, Learning, Complex Problems, Elegant Solutions

It would be naïve to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems ... However, with faith and perseverance, ... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace.

- Jimmy Carter

source: Jimmy Carter (1984). “Negotiation, the Alternative to Hostility”

topic: Perseverance, Peace, Past, Complex Problems, Peace And Justice

Liberia has to take primary responsibility for its own reform agenda. But our resources are limited. We have to attract the private sector to get jobs to our people that will enable us to raise the government revenue, but to do that we have to build infrastructure. It's a very complex problem of development we are facing here.

- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

source: Source: www.irinnews.org

topic: Complex Problems

Why is it that our young kids all across America can solve the most complex problems in a video game involving executive decision making and analytical thinking, yet we accept the fact that they can't add or read?

- Naveen Jain

topic: Kids, Thinking, Games, Complex Problems

Clipper took a relatively simple problem, encryption between two phones, and turned it into a much more complex problem, encryption between two phones but that can be decrypted by the government under certain conditions and, by making the problem that complicated, that made it very easy for subtle flaws to slip by unnoticed. I think it demonstrated that this problem is not just a tough public policy problem, but it's also a tough technical problem.

- Matt Blaze

topic: Simple, Thinking, Phones, Complex Problems, Encryption

I chose to be a photographer twenty-two years ago, but I don't know that I'd make that choice again. Back in the early eighties, I still thought I was doing okay, trying to order and shape the world with my camera. Now that I know a bit more about living and dying, about our planet and its complex problems, I'm a lot less comfortable with my images of people. Still, I haven't a clue what else to do.

- Eugene Richards

topic: Two, Order, Years, Complex Problems, Two Years Ago

Most of the approaches to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, have been directed at trying to resolve the most complex problems, like refugees and Jerusalem, which is akin to building the pyramid from the top down.

- Benjamin Netanyahu

topic: Pyramids, Top Down, Israel, Complex Problems

There are other dimensions of biotechnology. If you think of biotechnology like the Internet, it's not a category - it's an infrastructure that can be deployed to sustain or disrupt. In health care, the most complex problems at the high end have to be dealt with in a problem-solving mode by the best, most experienced physicians you can find.

- Clayton Christensen

source: Source: www.strategy-business.com

topic: Thinking, Physicians, Care, Complex Problems, Biotechnology

I used to suspect that in the brain, time is its own representation. I now think the problem is so much more complicated. Initially I was rather impressed by the experiments showing that on complex problems, subjects who are distracted do better in getting an answer than either those who answer immediately or those who spend time reflecting on the problem.

- Patricia Churchland

source: Source: www.3ammagazine.com

topic: Complex Problems

[People] are trying to - they're trying to create something that solves a series of very complex problems inside of them or in their history. And I think when I unknowingly - when I went to do that, that's what I was - I was trying to integrate all of these very difficult things that I'd been unable to integrate in my life and in my life with my parents.

- Bruce Springsteen

source: Source: www.npr.org

topic: Thinking, People, Parent, Complex Problems

We are so accustomed to the miracle of private enterprise that we habitually take it for granted. But how does private industry solve the incredibly complex problem of turning out tens of thousands of different goods and services in the proportions in which they are wanted by the public? ... It solves these problems through the institutions of private property, competition, the free market, and the existence of money - through the interrelations of supply and demand, costs and prices, profits and losses.

- Henry Hazlitt

topic: Loss, Miracle, Competition, Supply And Demand, Complex Problems

I often hear from new graduates that it's better to wait until you have more experience.... But I'm a big believer in the power of inexperience.... The world needs you before you stop asking naive questions and while you have the time to understand the true nature of the complex problems we face and take them on.

- Wendy Kopp

topic: Waiting, Faces, Inexperience, Complex Problems

... our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such infinite varieties of being, have laid open such new worlds in time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed.

- Thomas Huxley

source: Thomas Henry Huxley (1910). “Huxley's Autobiography and Selected Essays from Lay Sermons”

topic: Eye, Science, Sight, Mustard, Mustard Seed

You can only hear clearly when you sit quietly, when you give your attention. Nor can you have order if you are not free to watch, if you are not free to listen, if you are not free to be considerate. This problem of freedom and order is one of the most difficult and urgent problems in life. It is a very complex problem. It needs to be thought over much more than mathematics, geography, or history.

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

source: Jiddu Krishnamurti (2003). “Krishnamurti on Education”, p.30, Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd.

topic: Order, Giving, Watches, Complex Problems, Problems In Life

A woman's heart is such a complex problem - the owner thereof is often most incompetent to find the solution to this puzzle.

- Baroness Orczy

source: Baroness Orczy (2015). “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, p.127, Xist Publishing

topic: Heart, Problem, Owners, Complex Problems

If a photographic plate under the center of a lens focused on the heavens is exposed for hours, it comes to reveal stars so far away that even the most powerful telescopes fail to reveal them to the naked eye. In a similar way, time and concentration allow the intellect to perceive a ray of light in the darkness of the most complex problem.

- Santiago Ramon y Cajal

source: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Neely Swanson, Larry W. Swanson (2004). “Advice for a Young Investigator”, p.59, MIT Press

topic: Stars, Powerful, Eye, Complex Problems, Rays Of Light

I look at Google and think they have a strong academic culture. Elegant solutions to complex problems.

- Mark Zuckerberg

topic: Strong, Thinking, Google, Complex Problems, Elegant

Network news accustoms audiences to assertion not argument. Over time, it reinforces the notion that politics is about visceral identification and apposition, not complex problems and their solutions. ... sound bites aren't very helpful. They can tell a voter what a candidate believes, but not why. And many issues are too complex to be freeze dried into a slogan and a smile. ... What's lost in a world in which everything's an ad? Perhaps the country that created the assembly line has simply found a more efficient way to do politics.

- Kathleen Hall Jamieson

topic: Country, Believe, Issues, Complex Problems, Assembly Line

The extraordinary genius of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie 100 years ago was their recognition that the great wealth they had amassed could be put to public good and used to solve the complex problems for which there were no other sources of capital.

- Judith Rodin

topic: Years, Genius, Recognition, Complex Problems, John D Rockefeller

A trade unionist - of course I am. First, last, and all the time. How else to strike at the roots of the evils undermining the moral and physical health of women? How else grapple with the complex problems of employment, overemployment, and underemployment alike, resulting in discouraged, undernourished bodies, too tired to resist the onslaughts of disease and crime?

- Maud Younger

topic: Tired, Roots, Evil, Complex Problems, Underemployment

It is pure mythology that women cannot perform as well as men in science, engineering and mathematics. In my experience, the opposite is true: Women are often more adept and patient at untangling complex problems, multitasking, seeing the possibilities in new solutions and winning team support for collaborative action.

- Weili Dai

topic: Team, Men, Winning, Adept, Multitasking