John le Carre Quotes

Tinkering is a way of understanding difficult problems, of wrapping our heads around them and quantifying the unknowns.

I don't really get things very... intuitively. I mean, I don't immediately understand things. The only way I really get it is by writing it down.

Sometimes big problems are best solved with lots of small and creative solutions.

Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.

I try to take large, general questions that are difficult to resolve and break them down into small, very specific questions that have clear answers.

I'm a perfectionist. And that's served me very well in my career. It allows me to handle these large, complex problems without letting things fall through the cracks... That is the mentality you have to have to attack these complex problems of chip design, for example, when you're overwhelmed with complexity.

No matter how complicated a problem is, it usually can be reduced to a simple, comprehensible form which is often the best solution.

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

The world is complicated. But does every problem require a complicated solution?

Overcome obstacles one at a time: Sometimes the end goal becomes too daunting, so take things one step at a time and overcome each obstacle as you get to it.

I think sometimes a part requires more than one approach or thought.

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

I'm a common sense person who tries to analyze and I have to look at all sides of the issue because you don't want software that only does something but doesn't fix the other errors.

If you go deep into a problem, you'll find most all of the time that there are yet more problems to be solved from the ground up.

Unfortunately, simplistic framing of problems leads to simplistic answers.

All problems are finally scientific problems.

Don't try to solve the entire problem on day one.

when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.

He [John von Neumann] had the invaluable faculty of being able to take the most difficult problem and separate it into its components, whereupon everything looked brlliantly simple.

Geometry is beautifully logical, and it teaches you how to think and prove that things are so, step by step by step. Proofs are excellent lessons in reasoning. Without logic and reasoning, you are dependent on jumping to conclusions or - worse - having empty opinions.

You cannot solve a problem unless you diagnose the problem.

One cannot leap a chasm in two jumps.

The maxim of science is simply that of common sense-simple cases first; begin with seeing how the main force acts when there is as little as possible to impede it, and when you thoroughly comprehend that, add to it in succession the separate effects of each of the incumbering and interfering agencies.

Order is the key to all problems.

With method and logic one can accomplish anything.