Quotes About Impact

While I accept the notion of epistemic base, what I question is the role it has really played in the history of technology.

while the lives saved by the drug might not be accounted for anywhere.

In fact the rest are already benefiting from the contribution of the minority.

Aut tace aut loquere meliora silencio: only when the words outperform silence

It's much easier to sell "Look what I did for you" than "Look what I avoided for you.

Had it been expected, it would not have caused the damage it did

Cuál es la probabilidad de morir en un accidente aéreo?», por ejemplo, las personas aumentan el grado de probabilidad. Sin embargo, Slovic y sus colegas descubrieron, en patrones del mundo de los seguros, que en las pólizas la gente se olvidaba de esos sucesos altamente improbables. Dichos investigadores llaman a este fenómeno «la preferencia por asegurarse contra pequeñas pérdidas probables», a expensas de las menos probables pero de mayor impacto.

However, our presence in the sample completely vitiates the computation of the odds.

We humans scorn what is not concrete. We are more easily swayed by a crying baby than by thousands of people dying elsewhere that do not make it into our dining room. The one case is a tragedy, the other a statistic.

It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.

He will die with the impression of having done nothing useful.

In their aftermath, who got the recognition?

Metaphors and stories are far more potent (alas) than ideas;

good news is good news first; how good matters rather little.

Had it not been for the discovery of antibiotics, only a few decades earlier, I would not be here today.

Empirically, if you want an author to cross a few generations

I started to see the consequences of the idea.

Less is more and usually more effective.

when something is in relation to something else, that something else can be manipulated.

Mi idea es que algunos resultados científicos no sólo son inútiles en la vida real, porque infravaloran el impacto de lo altamente improbable (o nos llevan a ignorarlo), sino que es posible que algunos de ellos estén creando en realidad Cisnes Negros.

How frequent the profit is irrelevant; it is the magnitude of the outcome that counts.

Look at the implication for the Black Swan. Extremistan can produce Black Swans, and does, since a few occurrences have had huge influences on history. This is the main idea of this book.

shows no evidence that raising the general level of education raises income at the level of a country.

an even smaller handful managed to foresee the full extent of the damage.