Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

It’s not very profitable to sit and think nowadays. So many problems, and they seem all to have such twists to them – nothing is straightforward.

Early on, in discussions of financial oversight, people would say, 'Well, this is a very complicated problem, therefore it requires a complicated solution.' And at that step, I would say, 'Well, wait a minute. Just because it's a complicated problem doesn't mean the best course of action immediately is one that's complicated.'

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?

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

If simple, painless solutions to public problems existed, they would have been found long ago.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

I'd be wary of simple solutions to complex problems.

We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world.

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

I simply think things through, and I look at problems. One thing I pride myself on is the ability to connect unconnected thoughts and come up with new, unique thoughts.

Posing good questions is harder than it might seem... It's hard because asking good questions requires you to see past the easy answers and to focus instead on the difficult, the tricky, the mysterious, the awkward, and sometimes the painful. ... Great leaders don't have all the answers, but they know how to ask the right questions - questions that force others and themselves to move past old and tired answers, questions that open up possibilities that, before the question, went unseen.

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

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

The ultimate competitive advantage is being cognitive.

Eighty percent of my job is to ask the question, 'If this were real, what would it look like?'

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

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.

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

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

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

If we're going to have an unconventional budget, we probably need an unconventional process to get there.

The easiest way to solve a problem is to pick an easy one.

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.