“If, however, one factor is too successful, it will continue to be the winning factor regardless of the variation in the other factors over the range of variation in the conditions, and therefore will stifle the development of other advantageous factors until the conditions change sufficiently that it no longer is the winning factor. At this point, the whole population is ill prepared for the change, and may well perish entirely if the winning factor accidentally becomes the matching factor for a disease or a predator.” IfsWellsMayWholeWinningSuccessfulConditionsDevelopmentDiseasePreparedIllPopulationFactorsRangeVariationPredatorMatching Author:Erik Naggum
“In what region of the earth ever so remote from us, in what corner of creation ever so far out of the range of our communication, does not some burden lightened, some bond loosened, some yoke lifted, some labor better remunerated, some new hope for despairing hearts, some new light or new liberty for the benighted or the oppressed, bear witness this day, and trace itself, directly or indirectly, back to the impulse given to the world by the successful establishment and operation of free institutions on this American continent?” WorldHeartDoeLightEarthGivenLibertySuccessfulCreationCommunicationBearsLaborIndependenceInstitutionsBurdenCornersWitnessImpulseRangeOperationsRegionsThis DayEstablishmentContinentsOppressedIndependence DayYokeNew Hope Book:Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions: 1869-1879 [i.e. 1878 Source: Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions: 1869-1879 [i.e. 1878
“There are many directors in the middle range who've made mostly successful pictures, and then there are a few great directors who've had some successes and some failures. I suppose my life would be smoother if I wasn't almost totally enamored of the latter category.” IfsMadeWould BeSuccessfulMiddleDirectorsRangeLatterCategoriesEnamored Author:Jack Nicholson
“In psychology, there's something called the broken-leg problem. A statistical formula may be highly successful in predicting whether or not a person will go to a movie in the next week. But someone who knows that this person is laid up with a broken leg will beat the formula. No formula can take into account the infinite range of such exceptional events.” KnowsMayPersonsProblemNextSuccessfulPsychologyWeekEventsBrokenBeatsAccountsInfiniteLegsRangeFormulasExceptionalNext WeekPredictingBroken Leg Author:Atul Gawande