“Philosophy unravels the knots in our thinking; hence its results must be simple, but its activity is as complicated as the knots that it unravels.” ThinkingPhilosophySimpleResultsActivityComplicatedKnots Book:Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951 Source: Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951
“Number theorists say that number theory is too complicated, so let's pretend that there is only one prime number, and then let's combine all these results. Surprisingly, sometimes it works.” SometimesScienceResultsNumbersTheoryMathematicsComplicatedPrimeTheoristsPrime Numbers Author:Saharon Shelah
“There are plenty of team players in government who do whatever the leader says. There are too few difficult members, who have complicated minds, unusual perspectives, the toughness to withstand the party-line barrages and a practical interest in producing results.” MindGovernmentPoliticalDifficultInterestLinesResultsPartyLeaderPlayerTeamPerspectiveMembersComplicatedPracticalsPlentyUnusualPolitical PartiesToughnessTeam PlayerProducing Results Author:David Brooks
“Geometry, which should only obey Physics, when united with it sometimes commands it. If it happens that the question which we wish to examine is too complicated for all the elements to be able to enter into the analytical comparison we wish to make, we separate the more inconvenient [elements], we substitute others for them, less troublesome but also less real, and we are surprised to arrive, notwithstanding a painful labour, only at a result contradicted by nature; as if after having disguised it, cut it short or altered it, a purely mechanical combination could give it back to us.” IfsGivingShouldRealSometimesHappensAbleWishUnitedResultsCuttingElementsPainfulComplicatedPhysicsCommandCombinationLabourComparisonSubstitutesGeometryAlteredTroublesomeInconvenient Author:Jean le Rond d'Alembert
“One is faced with a dilemma: If one places total trust in all other users, one is vulnerable to the antisocial behavior of any malicious user consider the case of viruses. But if one tries to be totally reclusive and isolated, one is not only bored, but one's information universe will cease to grow and be enhanced by interaction with others. The result is that most of us operate in a complicated trade-off zone with various arrangements of trust and security mechanisms.” IfsTryingUniverseGrowsResultsCasesSecurityInformationBehaviorTradeVariousComplicatedCeaseVulnerableBoredZoneMechanismIsolatedInteractionUsersArrangementsVirusesDilemmaMaliciousAntisocialTrade OffsInteraction With OthersAntisocial Behavior Author:Fernando J. Corbato
“Because the results are expressed in numbers, it is easy to make the mistake of thinking that the intelligence test is a measure like a foot ruler or a pair of scales. It is, of course, a quite different sort of measure. Intelligence is not an abstraction like length and weight; it is an exceedingly complicated notion - which nobody has yet succeeded in defining.” ThinkingDifferentCoursesEasyResultsNumbersMistakeFeetTestsWeightNotionComplicatedScalesPairsLengthRulersAbstractionDefining Author:Walter Lippmann
“Secondly, figures, the symbols of numerical magnitude, are frequently also the symbols of operations, as when they are the indices of powers. Wherever terms have a shifting meaning, independent sets of considerations are liable to become complicated together, and reasoning and results are frequently falsified.” TogetherTermResultsFiguresIndependentComplicatedSymbolsOperationsReasoningConsiderationShiftingMagnitudeLiable Author:Ada Lovelace