“The military doesn't teach rifle marksmanship. It teaches equipment familiarity. Despite what the officer corps thinks, learning to shoot a rifle is not like learning to drive a car. Instead, it is like learning to play the violin.... The equipment familiarity learning curve comes up quick, but then the rifle marksmanship continuation of the curve rises very slowly....by shooting one careful shot at a time, carefully inspecting the result (and the cause).” ThinkingPlayCausesResultsTeachMilitaryCarGunShotsCome UpCarefulDespiteShootingOfficersEquipmentCurvesFamiliarityViolinRiflesContinuationLearning CurveMarksmanship Author:Daryl Davis
“School is an institution built on the axiom that learning is the result of teaching. And institutional wisdom continues to accept this axiom, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” SchoolResultsEducationAcceptingTeachingEvidenceBuiltInstitutionsContraryDespiteOverwhelmingAxioms Book:The Dawn of Epimethean Man, and Other Essays Source: The Dawn of Epimethean Man, and Other Essays
“In 302, the Roman emperor Diocletian commanded "there should be cheapness," declaring, "Unprincipled greed appears wherever our armies ... march. ... Our law shall fix a measure and a limit to this greed." The predictable result of Diocletian's food price controls were black markets, hunger and food confiscation by his soldiers. Despite the disastrous history of price controls, politicians never manage to resist tampering with prices -- that's not a flattering observation of their learning abilities.” ShouldLawBlackAbilityResultsPoliticianLimitsArmyGreedSoldierHungerDespiteManageObservationMarchPredictableEmperorFlatteringDeclaringCheapnessRoman Emperor Author:Walter E. Williams
“First, the only certainty is that there is no certainty. Second, every decision, as a consequence, is a matter of weighing probabilities. Third, despite uncertainty we must decide and we must act. And lastly, we need to judge decisions not only on the results, but on how they were made.” NeedsFirstsMadeMatterDecisionResultsJudgingConsequenceThirdsDespiteCertaintyUncertaintyProbabilityWeighing Author:Robert Rubin
“Fairy tales are loved by the child not because the imagery he finds in them conforms to what goes on within him, but because--despite all the angry, anxious thoughts in his mind to which the fairy tale gives body and specific content--these stories always result in a happy outcome, which the child cannot imagine on his own.” GivingMindChildrenStoriesBodyResultsImagineGoes OnAngryTalesDespiteOutcomesFairyAnxiousFairy TaleConformImageryAnxious Thoughts Author:Bruno Bettelheim
“[T]he unsympathetic assessments we make of others are usually the result of nothing more sinister than our habit of looking at them in the wrong way, through lenses clouded by distraction, exhaustion and fear, which blind us to the fact that they are really, despite a thousand differences, just altered versions of ourselves: fellow fragile, uncertain, flawed beings likewise craving love and in urgent need of forgiveness.” WayNeedsFactsDifferencesResultsHabitThousandFellowsBlindVersionsDespiteDistractionFragileUncertainLensesCravingFlawedUrgentAlteredExhaustionAssessmentWrong WaySinisterCloudedUnsympathetic Author:Alain de Botton
“This democracy... The elections in Iraq were held despite the American opposition. It was the will of the Iraqi people and the religious authorities. [The elections] were the result of pressure by Ayatollah Sistani, by the Iraqi religious authorities, and by the fighting forces in Iraq on America. They left the US no choice but to allow the elections.” PeopleAmericaChoicesFightingLeftForceReligiousResultsDemocracyAuthorityPressureElectionIraqDespiteOpposition Author:Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
“Science has long been in the value business. Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, scientific validity is not the result of scientists abstaining from making value judgments; rather, scientific validity is the result of scientists making their best efforts to value principles of reasoning that link their beliefs to reality, through reliable chains of evidence and argument.” LongRealityValuesBeliefResultsEffortJudgmentEvidenceArgumentScientistContraryDespiteChainsReasoningLinksObjectivityValidityBest EffortAbstaining Author:Sam Harris