Quotes About Calculation

We witness a strange inversion: on the one hand, the endeavor to turn the social contract into a less calculating and more feeling connection among its members; on the other hand, the endeavor to turn the erotic relationship into a contractual one.

Comment pourrais-tu aimer quelq'un avec le plâtre qui t'immobilise le coeur? On t'a imposé trop de calculs pour que tu puisses aimer. Si tu aimes quelqu'un, c'est qu'on t'a mal éduqué.

A state that calculates that using a weapon or tactic of war is in its interest will generally find a way to do so.

Some things, like the orbits of the planets, can be calculated far into the future. But that's atypical. In most contexts, there is a limit. Even the most fine-grained computation can only forecast British weather a few days ahead. There are limits to what can ever be learned about the future, however powerful computers become.

The numbers are there just to help you - at the end of the day you've still got to make the decision. There are certain things the numbers can't quantify: They can't quantify injuries, they can't quantify the weather, they can't give you a number on whether the referee's going to make a good call or a bad call.

Playing chess can make you a better poker player because it forces you to think several moves ahead. That kind of intense mental exercise develops a deeper level of thinking than is typically encountered when playing poker.

There will always be a measure of calculated risk-taking in manufacturing fame, especially in a deeply divided political climate.

How is an error possible in mathematics?

Look, for some players, pot odds should guide your decision making.

I think that we have to be constantly asking ourselves, 'How do we calculate the risk?' And sometimes we don't calculate it correctly; we either overstate it or understate it.

I would borrow money all day long, if the cost of borrowing is less than the expected return.

I've got the brain for systems and a head for figures.

My talent is numbers.

Numbers larger than ten are no longer human: they fly from the hand into the imaginary sky we call hypothesis.

You do the math, you expect the trouble.

Assessing the energy value of foods is a difficult technical problem. Nutritionists cannot calculate the value of foods directly because foods are too complicated in their composition and structure, and digestive systems treat different foods in different ways. So instead of making precise calculations of exactly the number of calories people can obtain from a given food, nutritionists make rough guesses.

I love you, and beneath all that logic, calculation, and superstition, I know you love me too.

Such firms realize that in contrast to the concept of "terminal value" from net present value (NPV)–oriented calculations, what one has instead is "asset debt"—the investment necessary to keep all assets at competitive best in class.

I have spent too much of my life opening doors for cats—I once calculated that, since the dawn of civilization, nine hundred and seventy-eight man-centuries have been used up that way. I could show you figures.

Her calculations were sometimes a little fuzzy, for the same reason that her checkbook sometimes did not balance; Becky Vesey (as she had been known as a child) had never really mastered the multiplication tables and she was inclined to confuse sevens with nines.

I often calculate odds on horse races; the civil service computermen frequently program such requests. But the results are so at variance with expectations that I have concluded either that the data is too meager, or the horses or riders are not honest. Possibly all three.

everything of any importance is founded on mathematics.

Back in 1933 — Lawdee-me, doesn't that seem like the Dark Ages now? — both von Neumann and Korzybski proposed non-Aristotelian logics, as I mentioned many chapters ago. Von Neumann just allowed for a "maybe" (1/2) between true (1) and false (0); Korzybski extended the "maybe" as far as you want — or as far as data allows you to calculate probabilities.

Instead of spending your time dreaming of your plan's happy ending, you must work on calculating every possible permutation and pitfall that might emerge in it.