Douglas Adams Quotes

Sometimes technique works better than a whole lot of other things.

Science - or the products of science like technology - is just a way of achieving something real, something that happens, something that works.

Never do anything complicated when something simple will serve as well. It's one of the most important secrets of living.

A brute force solution that works is better than an elegant solution that doesn't work.

I believe in anything that works.

Complexity has and will maintain a strong fascination for many people. It is true that we live in a complex world and strive to solve inherently complex problems, which often do require complex mechanisms. However, this should not diminish our desire for elegant solutions, which convince by their clarity and effectiveness. Simple, elegant solutions are more effective, but they are harder to find than complex ones, and they require more time, which we too often believe to be unaffordable

Why bother with a cunning plan when a simple one will do?

Things that are complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple.

No matter how smart you are, you're smarter if you take the easy ways when they are available.

This has been done elegantly by Minkowski; but chalk is cheaper than grey matter, and we will do it as it comes.

If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. (a Shin'a'in saying)

I try not to go the obvious route all the time, but sometimes the most obvious is actually the best.

When you're first thinking through an idea, it's important not to get bogged down in complexity. Thinking simply and clearly is hard to do.

I'm all for empowerment and education, but the empirical evidence is that it doesn't work. That's why I say make it easy.

All the great things are simple.

Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.

Quality management is needed because nothing is simple anymore, if indeed it ever was.

Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity. ... The geniuses of the computer field, on the the other hand, are the people with the keenest aesthetic senses, the ones who are capable of creating beauty. Beauty is decisive at every level: the most important interfaces, the most important programming languages, the winning algorithms are the beautiful ones.

For a large organization to be effective, it must be simple.

In a certain way, you get some new tools to work with, but I don't know if it ultimately makes the creative process any easier.

We are reaching the stage where the problems we must solve are going to become insoluble without computers. I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them.

The infinite we shall do right away. The finite may take a little longer.

If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.

There is nothing so practical as a good theory.

You're building a tool, not a piece of art. Don't be blinded by the vision.