Quotes About Structure

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days." –Annie Dillard

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. —ANNIE DILLARD, winner of Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, 1975

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system."—John Gall

The easiest way to avoid being overwhelmed is to create positive constraints: put up walls that dramatically restrict whatever it is that you're trying to do.

Humans Use Only 10% of Their Brains? Not Quite . . . "The most complex structure in the entire universe doesn't have just a vacant parking lot waiting for someone to drive in and start building. It's all used all the time, and in complex ways that we don't always understand.

A typical quotient construction for an algebraic structure A will identify some substructure B and regard two elements of A as "equivalent if they "differ by an element of B.

the kernel of a homomorphism is closed under addition, and also under multiplication by any element of the ring. These two properties define the notion of an ideal.

Courage is the key to creativity and to any relinquishing of ego structure.

J'ai toujours été intéressé par l'aspect humain. On ne le répétera jamais assez : toutes ces expériences, toutes ces sociétés modernes ne peuvent pas être jugées uniquement en fonction de l'efficacité de leur structure économique. Elles s'évaluent surtout en fonction du type d'hommes qui produisent ces objets, et du type de vie qu'ils sont obligés de mener. (p. 304)

Universality is the nonbelonging that becomes evident when a structure runs up against an external barrier as it strives to reproduce itself.

Imaginary experience never actually breaks from the structure of the symbolic order. Our imaginary enjoyment remains a confined and policed enjoyment, an enjoyment relatively amenable to symbolic authority.

Universals bring us together not by imposing a common structure on us but by revealing that we share what we don't have and can never have. The fact that no one can have a universal—no one possesses freedom or equality—is the source of their emancipatory quality. Universals are not possessions to have or lose or give away. We don't have to be suspicious of the universals because no one can ever impose them on us, even if someone wanted to.

W. Edwards Deming wrote, "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you are doing.

What drives them, more than rewards, is the desire to find or create order where there was none before.

A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure, to provide stability.

A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure, to provide stability. Not that I'm saying a woman can't provide stability, I'm not saying that...It does take a father though.

The idea that there is a family somewhere who functions is an odd concept.

Marvin Bell always looked very closely at how lines could break, how you could put over one line into the second line. How you could stop the line two or three times within the line: You could make it stop.

It's important to know how to operate within the system you are existing in.

If you look at any normal organization, the CEO is the person with the highest E.Q. The person with the highest IQ is often in the back room running the financials or the operations. That's topsy turvy.

Every good story-teller nowadays starts with the end, and then goes on to the beginning, and concludes with the middle...

How much risk should civil engineers design for? If the answer is zero risk, then nothing would ever be built.

When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.

apply shingles from the bottom up.