Daniel Levitin Quotes

Science is a way of getting knowledge. It's a method. It's a method that really relies on making mistakes. We propose ideas, they are usually wrong, and we test them against the data. Scientists do this in a formal way. It's a way that everyone can go through life; that's how we should be teaching science from a very young age.

Science is the practice of failing repeatedly but learning as you go.

I don't look at a problem and put variables in there that don't affect it.

Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic.

We should teach the students, as well as executives, how to conduct experiments, how to examine data, and how to use these tools to make better decisions.

Still, intuitive assumptions about behavior is only the starting point of systematic analysis, for alone they do not yield many interesting implications.

It's actually very surprising how little we think about the quality of our decision-making and how we could improve it. How absent decision-making classes are from educational curricula. How little we think about how it is we think.

There is no single right answer or path forward, but there is one right way to frame the problem.

I like solving problems, and science provides a logical way of solving real-life problems.

I like to look for patterns in science and life. It's what I do.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

The easiest way to solve a problem is to pick an easy one.

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.

I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them.

You must acquire something of that industrious habit of mind which the study of natural science gives,—the art of comparing, of perceiving true likenesses and true differences, and so of classifying and arranging what you see; the art of connecting facts together in your mind in cause and effect

I try to look at problems very clearly and think, 'How do we get out of this? What will work? What will be the consequences for the people involved?'

I'm not sure people would think of me in this light, but frankly, what I enjoyed most about Bain & Company, the consulting firm, was the analytical process of solving tough problems.

I always try to stay methodical and logical with everything I do, playing cricket and making decisions.

I learnt early that always being analytical is important for a business. Being analytical as an attitude is more important than just having the aptitude.

Being a scientist/engineer by nature, I approach everything as a problem.

Even if you're going into a field that has nothing to do with computer science, just having that way of analytical thinking and being able to process information and break it down is important no matter what you're doing. Having that knowledge of code is something that you can apply to your daily life.

I don't think I'm always right, but I would like to empower people to come to sound conclusions using a systematic way of looking at things.

Passion provides purpose, but data drives decisions.

Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.

Our problems are not with the data, itself, but arise from our interpretation of the data.