Quotes About Precision

Mathematics is written for mathematicians.

Whenever I see a forecast written out to two decimal places, I cannot help but wonder if there is a misunderstanding of the limitations of the data, and an illusion of precision.

When I'm scoring something like a string quartet, it's all notated music, so it's meticulously written in the score, which is very different than doing things by ear.

I think the written word is probably the best medium of communication because you have time to reflect, you have time to choose your words, to get your sentences exactly right. Whereas when you're being interviewed, say, you have to talk on the fly, you have to improvise, you can change sentences around, and they're not exactly right.

Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than the exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.

You can't criticize geometry. It's never wrong.

In math, you're either right or you're wrong.

The biggest challenge of being a pastry chef is that, unlike other types of chefs, you can't throw things together at a farmer's market. When you're working with baking powder and a formula, you have to be exact. If not, things can go wrong.

Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get em, get em right, or they will get you wrong.

My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.

My mind still runs too fast. If we get the wrong fabric or something is stitched the wrong way, I get so angry and so flummoxed that I start spelling my words, just to slow myself down.

Now he must not go the wrong way round the circuit, and unless he can spin himself stationary through 360 degrees I fail to see how he can avoid doing so.

We want to get 80%-85% of predictions right, not 100%. Or else we calibrated our estimates in the wrong way.

When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power.

We had this little yard, and during the summer holidays, when my mum and dad were working, I spent hours bowling a golf ball at a stick. Just bowling, bowling, bowling. And I got to where I could hit the stick every time, repeating the same action. That's where the darts came from.

When I'm out there, you just have to react. That's why you work on those throws. When you're in the moment, you can't think to yourself, 'How do I get this to go 47 yards and be 2 yards inside the sideline?'

The most difficult quality is to make the right decision. Because you can be quick, you can be strong, you can jump incredibly, you can have the best shots and you can be able to score goals from 50 yards, but if you don't know when to shoot, when to run or when to jump, you're lost.

I can hit the whiskers on a cat with a football from a distance of forty yards.

I don't believe you have to throw the ball 80 yards every play.

The only way to win tournaments is with the short game. Over half your shots out here are within 30 or 40 yards. Ballstriking is where I'm trying to improve, yes, but more to eliminate big numbers than make birdies.

Today, at 35, I can throw a small football close to 80 yards - and straighter than I can hit a golf ball.

I don't know how many times I've been 114 yards from the hole and made double bogey. Well, I hit a great drive, but it doesn't matter. It's only the next shot that matters.

I had such a tie with my eyes and my hands. I could look at a telephone pole 40 yards away, take out a 7-iron, and hit it 10 times in a row. I had something special. And somehow, I really understood the game, all without having a lot of guidance.

I need to improve my shorter stuff with my irons, from 100 to 175 yards. If I can hit a few more greens with those clubs and tighten up the proximity to the hole, that would help a lot.