Quotes About Understanding

The world is made of stuff and that stuff behaves in certain predictable ways; if you master the rules, you master the stuff.

If you're solving someone else's problem, you're constantly stabbing in the dark. When you solve your own problem, the light comes on.

Everyone wants to be heard and respected. It usually doesn't cost much to do, either. And it doesn't really matter all that much whether you ultimately think you're right and they're wrong. Arguing with heated feelings will just increase the burn.

The further away you are from something, the fuzzier it becomes.

when you think of the company as a product, you ask different questions: Do people who work here know how to use the company? Is it simple? Complex? Is it obvious how it works? What's fast about it? What's slow about it? Are there bugs? What's broken that we can fix quickly and what's going to take a long time?

Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand.

How should you keep track of what customers want? Don't. Listen, but then forget what people said. Seriously. There's no need for a spreadsheet, database, or filing system. The requests that really matter are the ones you'll hear over and over. After a while, you won't be able to forget them. Your customers will be your memory. They'll keep reminding you. They'll show you which things you truly need to worry about.

If you need to explain something, try getting real with it. Instead of describing what something looks like, draw it. Instead of explaining what something sounds like, hum it. Do everything you can to remove layers of abstraction.

They'll feel a bond with you and see you as human beings instead of a faceless company.

How would you feel about the apology if you were on the other end? If someone said those words to you, would you believe them? Keep

When you just copy and paste, you miss that. You just repurpose the last layer instead of understanding all the layers underneath.

A lot of companies have a similar front-of-house/back-of-house split. The people who make the product work in the "kitchen" while support handles the customers. Unfortunately, that means the product's chefs never get to directly hear what customers are saying. Too bad. Listening to customers is the best way to get in tune with a product's strengths and weaknesses.

Tell that to Beck," Leo said. "Invite him over and I will," his father replied.

All a skeptic is is someone who hasn't had an experience yet.

Remind yourself daily to spend more time being interested then interesting.

What we don't get as easily is that when we tap into our personal experience, the most vivid collection of life data at our disposal, we're relying on a similarly small sample size to draw conclusions.

For the Hermeticist, the universe is a holographic unity, and understanding any aspect of it can aid in understanding all other aspects.

Biroco cites Trithemius's own statement in the third book of the Steganographia: "This I did that to men of learning and men deeply engaged in the study of magic, it might, by the Grace of God, be in some degree intelligible, while on the other hand, to the thick-skinned turnip-eater it might for all time remain a hidden secret, and be to their dull intellects a sealed book forever."28

The microwave oven is the consolation prize in our struggle to understand physics.

Of course you understand. You're a very empathetic person. That's why you're such a great mother." "I'm not a mother yet." "You'd make a great mother. You're kind, you're caring, and you'd put the

Also, the more you're not focused on showbiz and instead focused on life, learning about other people, and keeping your eyes open and trying to be aware of the world.

I don't know the first real thing about the dating game. I don't know how to talk to a specific person and connect. I just think you have to go to person by person and do the best you can with people in general.

If you can find the line between sympathetic and creepy, you have reached a very funny area.

Aggressively yelling at a boy is as effective as attempting to stitch up a wound with a needle and no suture. Discipline without love is ineffectual.