Paul DePodesta Quotes

People should think things out fresh and not just accept conventional terms and the conventional way of doing things.

Since when was genius found respectable?

I've always challenged myself and the people who work with me to take new approaches to traditional business challenges, to push the envelope and constantly ask whether our sacred cows are still producing great milk.

If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

I think being a little nuts is helpful.

I was always attracted to taking a novel position, but one grounded in the materials I'd been given, not made up out of whole cloth.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

The biggest handicap in research is an ability to think outside the box. The handicap is being encumbered by all the conventional wisdom in a given field.

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.

I'm always trying to turn things upside down and see if they look any better.

I always say that it's about breaking the rules. But the secret of breaking rules in a way that works is understanding what the rules are in the first place.

The common question that gets asked in business is, 'why?' That's a good question, but an equally valid question is, 'why not?'

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.

Do not be afraid to offer ideas that draw opposition. Remember, if no one is against your idea, then your idea probably doesn't do anything.

Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics.

Oculus is a company that often does things differently. But we don't want to do things so differently that we start to get into trouble.

I'm good at thinking outside the box, so much that you realise it's not a box to begin with.

It always helps to have someone who can say, No, we can do it faster this way, or We have to break the rules, even our own rules, to get things done.

I think if you're really good at what you do, you can see outside the box.

There's nothing like having some healthy competition. We really strive to think outside the box by taking the standard approach the then twisting it a little, all the while trying something new.

Those who ultimately shake up an industry are often outsiders who don't know any better.

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

All it takes is one idea to solve an impossible problem.

Conflict is resolved not through compromise, but through invention.