Ian Hacking Quotes

When there's so much choice, it can get overwhelming and it's hard to make a choice.

Human decision-making is complex. On our own, our tendency to yield to short-term temptations, and even to addictions, may be too strong for our rational, long-term planning.

Anger does not solve problems - anger only makes things worse. I go by the old saying, 'Don't make important decisions when you're angry.'

It's very personal to me and doesn't work for everybody, but what I have found in my experience is that when I make pro and con lists, it's usually because I am trying to talk myself out of a good idea or talk myself into a really bad one.

Decisions can be a major challenge for all of us.

I think the idea that in a riddle there are two answers or two doors and that you have to pick the right one is almost sort of delightful to kids who are making so many choices every day and who often don't know for a while if they've made the right one. It's not as if you make a choice and then *ding* you have some sense of "oh, this is perfect and I'm happy" - it's never that simple.

What I find them struggling most isn't with one of the twelve [things from daily list]; I find them struggling with what decisions to make.

I make all my decisions on intuition. But then, I must know why I made that decision. I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.

The goal of leadership is not to eradicate uncertainty but rather to navigate it.

A friend tweeted me with 'The Big Freeze.' I don't know about that one. I've got to go home, play around with the kids and figure something out. I'll have one.

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.

Throughout history, one of the biggest problems is that the correct course of action is not always obvious, and the obvious course of action is not always correct.

When we can't see a pattern, we fit pieces together until one takes shape, because we have to.

When in doubt, play track 4 - it is usually the one you want.

Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry.

My friend Terry says that when you need to make a decision, in your work or otherwise, and you don’t know what to do, just do one thing or the other, because the worst that can happen is that you will have made a terrible mistake.

I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.

The mark of an educated man is the ability to make a reasoned guess on the basis of insufficient information.

Leaders have to figure it out when there is no road map.

you must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. always take the decisions you need to take, even if you're not sure you're doing the right thing. You'll never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb: 'The devil is in the detail.' Remember that proverb and you'll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.

If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.

Intelligence takes chances with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary.

I waited a second. Should I? No... but I will.

When in doubt, shoot the wizard.

My father said, ‘When in doubt, castle.’