Leonard Mlodinow Quotes

My father basically had two ways of judging anything. Either something was poetic or it wasn't.

Life is made up of a series of judgments on insufficient data, and if we waited to run down all our doubts, it would flow past us.

We need to be able to make decisions even though part of the information that we have is incorrect and wrong.

Even with ex-fighters as judges, it doesn't mean they can score a fight, you'd still end up with debate and opinion.

In my view, a review should be like talking to a friend who's just asked you, 'What was it like?' You're giving a verdict on an experience, not trying for a definitive last judgment.

When you come through a business education, a lot of what they teach you is to make decisions through analysis, and logic and rationale, and I'm a big believer in that. But I also believe in the power of instinct. The truth is you're never going to have a perfect answer or view of how it is going to work.

Insufficient facts always invite danger.

To be a visionary, all you have to do is make decisions based off of your eyes instead of your ears and your memory.

Hillary Clinton has no instinct.

A student brings something to discuss, saying, "I don't know whether this is really good, or whether I should throw it in the wastebasket." The assumption is that one or the other choice is the right move. No. Almost everything we say or think or do - or write - comes in that spacious human area bounded by something this side of the sublime and something above the unforgivable.

Decision-making is difficult because, by its nature, it involves uncertainty. If there was no uncertainty, decisions would be easy! The uncertainty exists because we don't know the future, we don't know if the decision we make will lead to the best possible outcome. Cognitive science has taught us that relying on our gut or intuition often leads to bad decisions, particularly in cases where statistical information is available. Our guts and our brains didn't evolve to deal with probabilistic thinking.

I believe there are two types of decision-makers - those who lead with their gut and those who make lists of pros and cons, and fully anticipate the consequences.

You can’t really legislate for the decisions that your heart makes.

You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.

Being able to hear an opinion. And then how to apply that opinion is something I am learning and working with every day. What can be tricky is how to differentiate a good suggestion that you should apply to your work [from] someone's personal taste at their opinionated best.

If your belief system is not founded in an objective reality, you should not be making decisions that affect other people.

The terms good and bad indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking or notions, which we form from the comparison of things one with another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance, music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him that mourns; for him that is deaf; it is neither good nor bad.

Maybe you're not even in a position to really judge how good your kid is at that endeavor.

No story ever looks as bad as the story you've just bought; no story ever looks as good as the story the other fellow just bought.

A little knowledge can go a long way.

People sometimes see an image and without knowing the surrounding patterns draw false conclusions.

Policy is formed by preconceptions, by long implanted biases. When information is relayed to policy-makers, they respond in terms of what is already inside their heads and consequently make policy less to fit the facts than to fit the notions and intentions formed out of the mental baggage that has accumulated in their minds since childhood.

I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.

Never do today what intuition says to do tomorrow.

Instinct leads, logic does but follow.