Charles K. Kao Quotes

I think you have to be creative to make a difference in science.

For me, I'd rather be the inventive one, and if something doesn't work, I'll go back to the workshop, put it on the bench, and pound on it for awhile.

Learning is the new skill. Imagination, creation and asking new questions are at its core.

Every project is an opportunity to learn, to figure out problems and challenges, to invent and reinvent.

Research is creating new knowledge.

Think small. Don't pretend you know the answers. Experiment; get feedback. These are all the premises of 'Think Like a Freak,' really.

I don't have any particular recipe. It is the reason why doing research is challenging as well as attractive. It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck, you might find a way out.

That is the trouble with many inventors; they lack patience. They lack the willingness to work a thing out slowly and clearly and sharply in their mind, so that they can actually "feel it work." They want to try their first idea right off; and the result is they use up lots of money and lots of good material, only to find eventually that they are working in the wrong direction. We all make mistakes, and it is better to make them before we begin.

There’s never a wrong idea. You just keep throwing stuff out and inevitably there are elements of different things that inspire a character or environment.

One reason people who spend a lot of time thinking about and working on a problem or a craft seem to find breakthroughs more often than everyone else is that they've failed more often than everyone else.

I must keep on trying, just to keep the experiment going until I get tired of it all. Even if the last result is not necessarily the best, I stop when my interest in the problem wanes.

I enjoy creating new ideas, working on new creative projects.

I'm sort of an experimenter; I thought it'd be interesting to play around and see what's there.

Art and science have so much in common - the process of trial and error, finding something new and innovative, and to experiment and succeed in a breakthrough.

I wouldn't say I'm a very original thinker, but if I have a good experience with something, I'll want to take it further or adapt it in some way.

You can't buy something which does not exist. In a way, let's make things exist and then judge later. Don't cancel the process of creativity too early; let it flow.

I wish somebody had given me the news that ideas don't just fall on your head like fairy dust. You have to treat that like a job. You have to spend hours each day, where you're just like, 'This is the part of the day when I'm looking for an idea.'

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.

I enjoy science, and I'm a very curious person. I always want to know the reason behind everything, big or small.

You're unlikely to discover something new without a lot of practice on old stuff, but further, you should get a heck of a lot of fun out of working out funny relations and interesting things.

I like to start with the ordinary, and then nudge it, and then think, 'What happens next, what happens next?'

As I see it, whoever's doing the inventing is also doing most of the learning - and probably having most of the fun.

We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee to fail intelligently... to experiment over and over again and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

I think if I try to develop a formula, it ends up not working.