Complexity Quotes - Page 35

• The continuous networks of neural circuitry accomplish their functions using multiple, independently discovered strategies. The brain lends itself well to the complexity of the world, but poorly to clear-cut cartography.

  David Eagleman

  Cutting, Brain, World

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• I think it's very, very important that in foreign policy and national security decision making, as in any other realm, that there be a range of diversity that reflects the full complexity of America. We should draw on those experiences to inform our decision making.

  Susan Rice

  Thinking, America, Diversity

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• If we look at the complexity of the challenges facing western societies today, we see that the problems are not really about outsiders, but have their roots much closer to home.

  Mariana Mazzucato

  Home, Roots, Challenges

  Source: www.salon.com

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• I like exploring life and its complexities.

  Nicole Kidman

  Exploring

  Source: queenofthedesertfilm.com

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• Durable, memorable poetry is usually alert to complexity. A really good poem gives you a reason to read it 20 times, because the language in a good poem is doing a lot of work emotionally and a lot of work intellectually. That means durable poetry can help us think about complexity, can help us resist easy answers and help us step back. And it can help us sometimes calm down, and sometimes it can help us stay upset.

  Stephen Burt

  Memorable, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• [In science any model depends on a pre-chosen taxonomy] a set of classifications into which we divide the enormous complexity of the real world... Land, labor, and capital are extremely heterogeneous aggregates, not much better than earth, air, fire, and water.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Real, Land, Fire

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• No decision-making system is going to guarantee corporate success. The strategic decisions that corporations have to make are of mind-numbing complexity. But we know that the more power you give a single individual in the face of complexity and uncertainty, the more likely it is that bad decisions will get made.

  James Surowiecki

  Giving, Decision, Mind

  James Surowiecki (2005). “The Wisdom of Crowds”, p.220, Anchor

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• Much of the image of the amazingness of America comes from the movies into other cultures. And it's much the same thing when you reverse it. Much of Africa is presented through poverty, through drought and war. [But] you're not presenting people, you're not presenting countries, you're not presenting complexity, and so people can't care about an amorphous mass called Africa.

  Chris Abani

  Country, War, Other Cultures

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• The aim of science is always to reduce complexity to simplicity.

  William James

  Simplicity, Aim

  1890 The Principles of Psychology, ch.9.

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• We are living in complex, difficult times and I wanted Syriana to reflect this complexity in a visceral way, to embrace it narratively. There are no good guys and no bad guys and there are no easy answers. The characters do not have traditional character arcs; the stories don't wrap up in neat little life lessons, the questions remain open. The hope was that by not wrapping everything up, the film will get under your skin in a different way and stay with you longer. This seemed like the most honest reflection of this post 9-11 world we all find ourselves in.

  Stephen Gaghan

  Life Lesson, Character, Reflection

  "Syriana - Preview" by Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• I don't [believe in God]. I have a problem with religion or anything else that says, 'We have all the answers,' because there's no such thing as 'the answers.' We're complex. We change our minds on issues all the time. Religion leaves no room for human complexity.

  Daniel Radcliffe

  Believe, Issues, Mind

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• That it should be the questions and shape of a life, its total complexity gathered, arranged, and considered, which matters in the end, not some stamp of salvation or damnation that disperses all the complexity into some unsatisfying little decision - the balancing of scales.

  Tony Kushner

  Decision, Shapes, Littles

  Tony Kushner (2013). “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition”, p.39, Theatre Communications Group

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• I like what Barcelona is doing. This city almost perfectly combines its natural advantages with cultural attractions, IT parks and first-rate educational opportunities. The same applies for Dublin, which manages to achieve a blend of complexity, tolerance and artistry and makes a point of not devoting every part of the city to the tourism industry. Sometimes creativity also means forgoing short-term profits and simply saying no.

  Charles Landry

  Educational, Mean, Creativity

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• There is probably no one, however rigid his virtue, who is not liable to find himself, by the complexity of circumstances, living at close quarters with the very vice which he himself has been most outspoken in condemning -- without altogether recognizing it beneath the disguise of ambiguous behavior which it assumes in his presence.

  Marcel Proust

  Vices, Assuming, Virtue

  Marcel Proust, Dennis Joseph Enright (1992). “In Search of Lost Time: Swann's way”, Vintage

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• We find that the manager, particularly at senior levels, is overburdened with work. With the increasing complexity of modern organizations and their problems, he is destined to become more so. He is driven to brevity, fragmentation, and superficiality in his tasks, yet he cannot easily delegate them because of the nature of his information.

  Henry Mintzberg

  Senior, Organization, Tasks

  "The structuring of organizations: A synthesis of the research". Book by Henry Mintzberg, 1979.

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• You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people. As you increase the number of people, you have to decrease the complexity of the information.

  Andy Stanley

  Numbers, People, Groups

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• I worry that track is going to enter into an impossibly complicated stage, where our understanding of the complexities of human physiology - and our ability to accentuate and exploit them - is going to make the notion of pure competition impossible.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Track, Worry, Understanding

  "Usain Bolt, a Collapse, and an Epic Beer Mile". Interview with Nicholas Thompson, www.newyorker.com. August 27, 2015.

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• For most of modern life, our strong talents and desires for group effort have been filtered through relatively rigid institutional structures because of the complexity of managing groups. We haven't had all the groups we've wanted, we've simply had the groups we could afford. The old limits of what unmanaged and unpaid groups can do are no longer in operation.

  Clay Shirky

  Strong, Effort, Political

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• For a decade Americans have been steeped in the rhetoric of "zero tolerance" and the faith that virtually all problems from drug addiction to lousy teaching can be solved by pouring on the punishment. Even without a Commander in Chief who pledges to rid the world of evildoers, smoke them out of their holes and the like, we would be vulnerable to the temptation to brush aside frustrating complexities and relieve intolerable fear (at least for the moment) by settling on one or more scapegoats to crush. To imagine that trauma casts out fantasy is a dangerous mistake.

  Ellen Willis

  Crush, Zero, Mistake

  "Dreaming of War". "The Nation", October 15, 2001.

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• The complexity of the language of images is disguised by the ease and rapidity with which we read them. I've tried to make work that is as transparent and simple as possible. No matter how much I strip away the result is always more complex to me than I expect.

  Michael Craig-Martin

  Simple, Ease, Matter

  Source: briansherwin-artcritic.blogspot.com

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• Don't accept the excuse of complexity.

  Keith Rabois

  Excuse, Accepting

  "Lecture 14: How to Operate". Keith Rabois' "How To Start a Startup" lecture to the class at Stanford University in Stanford, California, genius.com. November 6, 2014.

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• Biology is a way of approaching the truth about the mind. In biology most people don't tackle problems at the level of complexity that psychoanalysis does. But psychoanalysis has a degree of uncertainty about it. A psychoanalyst may have some deep insights, but cannot, at the moment, run experiments to establish whether it's really the truth.

  Eric Kandel

  Running, People, Mind

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• One of the problems with watching TV is that you've got a fairly low level of language operating all the time. Quite a small vocabulary and really no conceptual or abstract thinking. That's an issue. If you've got a wide vocabulary, you can learn. The complexities of grammar, in themselves, force you to think about time in a particular way. Force you to widen your outlook on the world.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Thinking, Issues, Vocabulary

  Source: americanlibrariesmagazine.org

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• Over time, I started becoming more and more aware of the vastness and complexity of the universe, which led me away from any sort of conventional Christianity.

  Moby

  Vastness, Becoming, Christianity

  "Exclusive Premiere of Moby’s New Video, 'The Last Day'". Interview with Jaeah Lee, www.motherjones.com. September 2, 2014.

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• The linear, mechanistic view of the world which pervades orthodox economics is simply not capable of capturing the richness and complexity of the rhythms and fluctuations of developed economies.

  Paul Ormerod

  Views, World, Economics

  "The Death of Economics". Book by Paul Ormerod, 1994.

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