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Complexity Quotes

Browse 1197 quotes about Complexity.

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Complexity Quotes

“During Prohibition, Atlantic City created the idea of the speakeasy, which turned into nightclubs and that extraordinary political complexity and corruption coming out of New Jersey at the time. The long hand that they had-and maybe still do-even had to do with presidential elections.”

LongStillsIdeasHandsPoliticalCitiesElectionExtraordinaryCorruptionPresidentialComplexityComing OutJerseyProhibitionNew JerseyPresidential ElectionNightclubsAtlantic City
Author:Martin Scorsese
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“When a livestock farmer is willing to "practice complexity"-to choreograph the symbiosis of several different animals, each of which has been allowed to behave and eat as it evolved to-he will find he has little need for machinery, fertilizer, and, most strikingly, chemicals. He finds he has no sanitation problem or any of the diseases that result from raising a single animal in a crowded monoculture and then feeding it things it wasn't designed to eat. This is perhaps the greatest efficiency of a farm treated as a biological system: health.”

NeedsLittlesHas BeensDifferentProblemAnimalResultsPracticeWillingDiseaseTreatedBehaveComplexityFarmsChemicalsFarmersEfficiencyFeedingMachineryCrowdedFertilizerSanitationLivestockSymbiosisDifferent AnimalsMonoculture
Author:Michael Pollan
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“The Hawk and the Dove is a wonderful idea for a book, wonderfully carried out. Nicholas Thompson has used illuminating new material to present each of his protagonists in a convincing, respectful, but unsparing way. Even more valuable, he has used the interactions and tensions between Paul Nitze and George Kennan to bring much of American 20th century foreign policy to life, with human richness ever present but with the big issues clear in all their complexity.”

WayHumansBookIdeasBigsUsedIssuesClearWonderfulCenturyPolicyMaterialsValuableTensionComplexityForeign PolicyInteraction20th CenturyConvincingRichnessRespectfulDoveHawksProtagonistsIlluminating
Author:James Fallows
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“When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don't really understand the complexity of the problem. Then you get into the problem, and you see that it's really complicated, and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That's sort of the middle, and that's where most people stop... But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem - and come up with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works.”

PeoplePersonsProblemSeemsBeautifulSimplePrinciplesMiddleKeysSolutionsCome UpComplicatedComplexityReally GreatElegantReally BeautifulGreat PersonConvoluted
Author:Steve Jobs
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“There is nothing “still” in the remarkably visceral poems of Alexander Long's third collection, Still Life, and nothing is at rest in these restless and edgy poems. Conversational and kinetic, these poems chart the traces left by the shifting overlays of the templates of literature, rock-and-roll, and contemporary culture. As each poem in Still Life attempts to fix a focus upon a scene or subject, the protean natures under view draw the poet into the eddies and complexities of reflection. This is a powerful and moving collection of poems.”

LongStillsMovingCultureLiteratureLeftViewsPowerfulFocusSubjectsRocksPoetSceneDrawsReflectionThirdsContemporaryComplexityCollectionsRock And RollRestlessShiftingEdgyVisceralStill Life
Author:David St. John
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“The evolutionary vision is agnostic in regard to systems in the universe of greater complexity than those of which human beings have clear knowledge. It recognizes aesthetic, moral, and religious ideas and experiences as a species, in this case of mental structures or of images, which clearly interacts with other species in the world's great' ecosystem.”

WorldHumansIdeasUniverseReligiousHuman BeingsMoralVisionCasesClearGreaterRegardStructureSpeciesComplexityAestheticAgnosticEcosystems
Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“The very act of thinking about power in our lives and experiences creates a process of revelation and self-analysis that may even make us look at ourselves in a new light... thinking about power and its complex manifestations may not simply lead to a better understanding of the abstract complexities of society, but may have an effect on one?s own image and identity. Perhaps a warning label should be placed on the cover.”

ThinkingShouldLooksMaySelfLightProcessUnderstandingOur LivesEffectsIdentityComplexesLabelsAnalysisManifestationAbstractComplexityRevelationsWarningSelf AnalysisWarning Labels
Book:Three Faces of Power
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“A second possible approach to general systems theory is through the arrangement of theoretical systems and constructs in a hierarchy of complexity, roughly corresponding to the complexity of the "individuals" of the various empirical fields... leading towards a "system of systems." [...] I suggest below a possible arrangement of "levels" of theoretical discourse...(vi) [...] the "animal" level, characterized by increased mobility, teleological behavior and self-awareness...”

SelfIndividualAnimalLevelsAwarenessFieldsTheoryBehaviorApproachSelf AwarenessVariousComplexityArrangementsDiscourseConstructsHierarchyTheoreticalCorrespondingMobilitySystems Theory
Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
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“Views of women, on one side, as inwardly directed toward home and family and notions of men, on the other, as outwardly striving toward fame and fortune have resounded throughout literature and in the texts of history, biology, and psychology until they seem uncontestable. Such dichotomous views defy the complexities of individuals and stifle the potential for people to reveal different dimensions of themselves in various settings.”

PeopleMenDifferentHomeSeemsLiteratureIndividualSidesCommunityViewsPsychologyFameFortuneStriveNotionVariousSettingSettingsComplexityDimensionsBiologyDifferent DimensionsHome And Family
Author:Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
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“Seeing yourself reflected on screen is a very important part of being human. It makes us feel less alone, it make us feel more connected to humanity. Women, gay men, and trans people for a long time have not seen themselves represented, so being able to show the complexities that we all have - just as complex stories as a heterosexual white male - is crucial for us to feel more human and have other people see us as human beings.”

PeopleMenFeelsHumansLongImportantStoriesShowsAbleHumanityHuman BeingsWhiteSeeingGayLong TimeComplexesMalesConnectedScreensComplexityCrucialBeing HumanTransGay MenSeeing Yourself
Author:Marielle Heller
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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.”

IfsThinkingWorldWayProblemLanguageForceLevelsIssuesParticularTvsLowsWideAbstractComplexityVocabularyOutlookGrammarWatching TvLow LevelAbstract Thinking
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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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.”

PeopleWayMindMayDoeMomentsProblemRunningLevelsDegreesInsightExperimentsUncertaintyComplexityBiologyPsychoanalysis
Author:Eric Kandel
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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.”

Has BeensWantedPoliticalDesirePoliticsStrongCan DoEffortGroupsModernTalentHavensLimitsStructureOperationsComplexityModern LifeGroup Effort
Author:Clay Shirky
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“A single thread of self generation ties the cosmos, the bios, and the technos together into one creation. Humans are not the culmination of this trajectory but an intermediary, smack in the middle between the born and the made... The arc of complexity and open-ended creation in the last four billion years is nothing compared to what lies ahead.”

YearsHumansMadeSelfTogetherLastsLyingBornFourGenerationsMiddleCreationBillionsTiesComplexityCosmosThreadArcsSmackTrajectoryCulminationTechnoBios
Author:Kevin Kelly
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“Extrapolated, technology wants what life wants: Increasing efficiency Increasing opportunity Increasing emergence Increasing complexity Increasing diversity Increasing specialization Increasing ubiquity Increasing freedom Increasing mutualism Increasing beauty Increasing sentience Increasing structure Increasing evolvability”

WantOpportunityTechnologyDiversityStructureComplexityEfficiencyEmergenceSpecializationUbiquity
Book:What Technology Wants
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“The daily grinding of evolution, as accelerated by technology, churns out more and more complex organisms, with higher rates of energy use, and with increasing specialization. Minds are the ideal way to express complexity, energy density, increasing specialization, expanding diversity -- all in one system. Mindedness is what evolution produces. Mindedness is what technology wants, too.”

WayWantMindUseEnergyTechnologyProduceEvolutionHigherDiversityIdealsComplexesRateComplexityOrganismsExpandingDensitySpecializationEnergy Use
Author:Kevin Kelly
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“Different things work for different people. One thing I've realized, though, is that the work that I've done on myself outside of my work as an actress has really allowed me to open up my mind. I think I understand my emotional state and my complexities now in a much clearer way, and I can put them to rest in a way that there's almost a catharsis that happens through the work, where I can do it and then find myself again.”

PeopleThinkingWayMindI CanDifferentStatesDoneHappensCan DoOne ThingEmotionalActressesComplexityDifferent ThingsDifferent PeoplesI Can Do ItCatharsis
Author:Scarlett Johansson
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“Poems give us permission to be unsure, in ways we must be if we are ever to learn anything not already known. If you look with open eyes at your actual life, it's always going to be the kind of long division problem that doesn't work out perfectly evenly. Poems let you accept the multiplicity and complexity of the actual, they let us navigate the unnavigable, insoluble parts of our individual fates and shared existence.”

IfsWayGivingLooksKindLongProblemEyeIndividualExistenceKnownAcceptingFateWork OutComplexityDivisionPermissionNavigateMultiplicityUnsureOpen EyesActual Life
Author:Jane Hirshfield
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