Esther Dyson Quotes

One of the things Mr. Kennedy taught me was that in laying out a new project, you shouldn't try to cope with every little problem.

Some people are great at the pure mathematical things - like Bill Gates, he's great at math things. He loves to do puzzles. Me, I like to look at an overall landscape and try to figure out, how do you solve a problem?

Meeting the challenges of the future requires a state that can think and act strategically.

Leadership is solving problems.

There are problems that just end up being really hard and by definition the only problems that come to my desk are the ones that nobody else can solve.

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted.

Sometimes the only solution is figuring out a bigger problem to focus on.

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

My hope is that design thinking becomes an innovative discipline and not just the trend of the decade. As a nation and globally, we have some of the biggest problems to solve we have ever faced. We need innovative ways to solve our problems and communicating the solutions will be paramount. Original thinking, complex problem solving, and collaboration are all important skills for our future.

I started playing chess when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is very good for children to learn to play chess, because it helps them to develop their mental abilities. It also helps to consolidate a person's character, because as it happens both in life and in a chess game we have to make decisions constantly. In chess there is no luck and no excuses: everything is in your hands.

Don't just play your way around the course. Think your way around way around the course.

One cannot leap a chasm in two jumps.

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.

Every good mathematician should also be a good chess player and vice versa.

I learned how to order my thoughts, and most important, learned how to develop a plan. I discovered the power of a plan. If you can plan it out, and it seems logical to you, you can do it. And that was the secret to success.

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble

For me, chess is a language, and if it's not my native tongue, it is one I learned via the immersion method at a young age.

When you have a time of crisis what happens depends on what ideas are floating around, and what ideas have been developed, and thought through, and are made effective.

A problem is a question you haven't yet answered to a level that has fulfilled you.

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

"What would I do if?.." By thinking tactically, we can more easily arrive at correct tactical solutions, and practice - even theoretical practice - tends to produce confidence in our solutions which, in turn, makes it easier for us, and thus quicker, to reach a decision.

With thought, all problems can be resolved.

Failing to grapple with complexity actually turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy.

... good intentions are not sufficient to solve our problems.

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess.