Dean Koontz Quotes

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.

There is no problem so complicated that you can't find a very simple answer to it if you look at it right.

People are always trying to draw simplistic dialectics that can capture things.

There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems.

What motivates me is the conviction that our problems are mainly a consequence of a lack of holistic understanding of the man-made system in which we are entwined.

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.'

The television industry doesn't like to see the compexity of the world. It prefers simple reporting, with simple ideas: this is white, that's black; this is good, that's bad.

Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

Yet we act as if simple cause and effect is at work. We push to find the one simple reason things have gone wrong. We look for the one action, or the one person, that created this mess. As soon as we find someone to blame, we act as if we've solved the problem.

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

Unfortunately, simplistic framing of problems leads to simplistic answers.

Every problem we have in this country we created and we can fix it.

… steer clear of bogus simplicity

Appreciating complexity while searching through its thickets to find essential factors leads to understanding.

It is true that [the] present-day young are idealistic. But theirs is the easy idealism that condemns abuses and pushes aside any thought that would reveal the difficulties and complexities inherent in righting wrongs. They are not willing to do the hard work by which alone the world can be improved. Hearing what they say, and seeing what they do, one suspects that one of the main functions of the young’s idealism is finding good reasons for doing bad things.

Most decisions are not binary, and there are usually better answers waiting to be found if you do the analysis and involve the right people.

We lack an educated, resilient citizenry capable of navigating the increasing complexities of daily life.

My experience in government is there is a whole host of unintended consequences you have to think through. I can't un-know that, I find it harder now to offer simple solutions.

Every situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is exceedingly simple.

The problem is that we attempt to solve the simplest questions cleverly, thereby rendering them unusually complex. One should seekthe simple solution.

No one-liner can ever be optimal.

When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

If everyone is trying to prevent error, it screws things up.