Scott Westerfeld Quotes

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

Solve problems, make art, think deeply.

If you are going to try and change things, you had better have your wits about you.

When you are failing, you are forced to be creative, to dig deep and think, night and day.

You read something and you know it's not there yet. There's a little section here that... this part's good but that is a little not, it doesn't quite work. That doesn't quite work. That's easy. To say, "OK, now, this is what I think will fix it." That's harder. And most people can tell you what's wrong with something. Very few people can say what they would do to fix it.

Never bring the problem solving stage into the decision making stage. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the problem rather than the solution.

Thinking - in particular abstract thinking, which most of us are introduced to through the study of mathematics and literature - helps us learn that we can become problem solvers.

Futures thinking is hard work. Fortunately, you do get better at it with practice. It's worth the effort.

Action is typical of the American style, thought and planning are not; it is considered heresy to state that some problems are not immediately or easily solvable.

One of the biggest challenges we have, as business owners and people, is that we think in linear terms.

Meet the challenges of the time.

It is true that one has to think first and then to act - but it's also true that if one has no possibility of acting, one's thinking kind of becomes empty and stupid.

It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes. In the stock market you don't base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational. Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time.

I've always been kind of a strategic thinking person - I love sports for instance, but my interest in sports is 'cause I love watching strategy in action or playing it. I'm not into the drama so much, of the physical action. I'm interested in the coach and how he's strategizing.

Every problem has a creative solution.

Thinking is one of the most important weapons in dealing with problems

Learn to use your brain power. Critical thinking is the key to creative problem solving in business.

The intellectual equipment needed for the job of the future is an ability to define problems, quickly assimilate relevant data, conceptualize and reorganize the information, make deductive and inductive leaps with it, ask hard questions about it, discuss findings with colleagues, work collaboratively to find solutions and then convince others.

It's all Ati. Now, let's be practical.

Sometimes I do have something in my head. But, for me, I think it usually ends up being about considering all of the elements, and trying to understand the distance from where we are to where we want to go.

I like the life of ideas and applying ideas to action.

To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.

Complacency with our traditional judgement based thinking methods is not enough. Our existing thinking habits are excellent just as the rear wheel of a motor car is excellent but not enough. We need to put far more emphasis on creative and design thinking. Judgement and analysis are not enough.

Hard knocks have a place and value, but hard thinking goes farther in less time.

It is a curious property of research activity that after the problem has been solved the solution seems obvious.