Quotes About Analysis

It doesn't matter how much you plan, you'll still get some stuff wrong anyway. Don't make things worse by overanalyzing and delaying before you even get going. Long projects zap morale. The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch. Make the call, make progress, and get something out now—while you've got the motivation and momentum to do so.

Today, every business, including yours, is being observed and studied by others who want your revenues.

Here are nine reasons I've seen and heard most often as I search to understand why we hesitate: Why people hesitate to act Gotten too comfortable Study things to death Lack of confidence Think the big deal will fly in the window Think it's already too late for them Fear of losing what they have Afraid nobody will pitch in Family pressures to not take the risk Lack of financial safety net

se ahonda en la anomalía, en lo repugnante y mezquino como si nuestra norma fuese la del respeto y la generosidad y la rectitud y hubiese que analizar microscópicamente cuanto se sale de ella: como si la mala fe y la tradición, la malquerencia y la voluntad de daño no formaran parte de esa norma y fueran cosas excepcionales, y merecieran por ello todos nuestros desvelos y nuestra máxima atención. Y no es así.

I appreciate that. I'm feeling bad too. Let's retrace our steps and think about how this happened. I suspect we may each have contributed to the problem. From your point of view, did I do anything differently this time?

Blame Can Leave a Bad System Undiscovered

Address the implications of the alternate view. Another thing Peter might say is, "Let's put aside for a minute the question of whether this complaint is true and instead ask what if it were true? What would it mean? What would be the implications for you?

When competent, sensible people do something stupid, the smartest move is to try to figure out, first, what kept them from seeing it coming and, second, how to prevent the problem from happening again. Talking about blame distracts us from exploring why things went wrong and how we might correct them going forward. Focusing instead on understanding the contribution system allows us to learn about the real causes of the problem, and to work on correcting them.

We may prefer a more primitive analysis: that when you defeat an enemy you are required to eat his heart. In this way is your victory recorded with The Gods. In this way too do The Gods ensure the continuation of their amusement: you consume the heart of your enemy so that it can no longer be said of him that he exists -- except as he exists in you.

The mind always wants to categorize and compare

The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information — this is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative. All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information — this is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative. All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. The mind then gives form to the creative impulse or insight. Even the great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came at a time of mental quietude.

Fundamental analysis often works, but it often fails. Technical analysis often works, and then it does not work. Economists speak of economic cycles, but none can be found analytically. Traders speak of market cycles; they too cannot be proven. To top it off, the critics of the EMH have been unable to offer an alternative that takes all the discrepancies into account. In few other areas are theory and practical experience in such little agreement.

But he could never be long without trying to find a reason for what she was doing . . .

The wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgments until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of the troubled and frothy surface. [Alluding to Joseph Priestley's Observations on Air]

the most trenchant commentary was

Critical thinking does seem a superior sort of thinking because it seems as though the critic is actually going beyond the scope of what is being criticized in order to criticize it. That is only rarely a true assumption because, most often, the critic will seize on some little aspect that he or she understands and tackle only that.

No amount of excellence on the part of a computer can lead to the solution of a problem if the problem has been incorrectly defined by the programmer. In

Edward Gibbon

Study the historian before you begin to study the facts.

History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger's slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him.

Immature thought is predominately purposive and utopian. Thought which rejects purpose altogether is the thought of old age. Mature thought combines purpose with observation and analysis.

Good historians...have the future in their bones

It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is, of course, untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context.