W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Design is a way of life, a point of view. It involves the whole complex of visual communications: talent, creative ability, manual skill, and technical knowledge. Aesthetics and economics, technology and psychology are intrinsically related to the process.

If something doesn't work in my house - TV, phone, stereo, anything - I just call my dad, and he knows the answer.

Machines have the ability to assemble things faster than any human ever could, but humans possess the analytics, domain expertise, and valuable knowledge required to solve problems and optimize factory floor production.

You can't participate in agriculture or redesign of aircraft for making them safer if you know nothing about it. So, whenever a person says 'will I be participating in the new world?' Only in areas that you can participate it. Areas that you have competence in. I'm not talking about self confidence, I'm talking about the ability to solve problems. Electrical, chemical, technical. I don't know of any other kind of problem.

In my own life, I found that whenever I wasn't sure what to do next, I would go and learn a lot, read a lot, talk to experts. I don't know how the human brain works, but it's almost magical: when you read enough or talk to enough experts, when you have enough inputs, new ideas start appearing. This seems to happen for a lot of people that I know.

Any idiot can throw together a program or report and shove it out, but to get the balance and to get the skill set, that is what they pay us for. They don't pay us to prattle on the television; anybody can do that.

Complex things, if you don't understand them, it seems complicated. If you understand them, and we know how to handle it, it became simple.

I was very intimidated by the visual effects world. But I began to realize that you don't have to know everything. You have to be able to talk about story.

I had acquired the skills to sail a ship; I didn't acquire the knowledge.

I was more of a person that liked flying and operating high-performance machinery, and I liked that, the skill it took, the intelligence it took to do that.

Experts are able to identify patterns related to a specific problem relevant to their area of knowledge. But because nonexperts lack that base of knowledge, they are forced to rely more on their brain's ability for abstraction rather than specificity.

I think the best developers can learn any language; if they are a good developer, they can learn whatever. But the raw talent, the ability to learn it and do it and demonstrate the ability is helpful.

Cool innovation might happen in startups, but they often lack the resources or the deep expertise in the problems they want to address.

A professional knows what's impossible. If you know it's impossible, it is impossible. But if you don't know it's impossible, suddenly it is possible.

Someone who's a really good engineer is someone who's a little bit smarter than you but who also listens to you and doesn't impose agendas.

Even if you're going into a field that has nothing to do with computer science, just having that way of analytical thinking and being able to process information and break it down is important no matter what you're doing. Having that knowledge of code is something that you can apply to your daily life.

I know firsthand that the characteristics of a great engineer - problem-solving skills, a deep understanding of technology, and a results-driven mindset - are the exact same things that any executive, in any industry, must have in order to succeed.

When you've worked in the same place for 13 years, when things go well, you know how to keep it going well. When things go bad, you know how to fix it. The biggest thing is that familiarity.

Do I need to know about medicine to solve the health problem in Brazil? Do I need to know about agriculture to advance the agribusiness?

You have to draw on a fair amount of experience in order to be able to put ideas together.

I'm an engineer.

We need a lot more technically literate people. The computers are the tools that are going to solve essentially all problems, and the people who can use them better will be more effective.

At a certain career level, it's no longer about whether you are the smartest subject-matter expert in the room.

On 'MythBusters,' a lot of what we do does not fall into any category of things we have ever done before. There's a lot of problem solving to figure out how to even approach a given problem. A background in science or engineering helps a lot.

I must say what I admire most is the person who masters an area of practical experience, and can teach me something. I mean, my local midwife has taught me how to keep bees. Well, she can't understand anything I write. And I find myself liking her, may I say, more than most poets. And among my friends I find people who know all about boats or know all about certain sports, or how to cut somebody open and remove an organ. I'm fascinated by this mastery of the practical.