Vikas Swarup Quotes

Finally, you're right about one point, your entire way of thinking is predicted by what you're immersed in so you know you won't make a bad decision. You can make a bad decision but it's still in the good sphere normally if you work well. You're prepared to face a crew who wants to know everything and poses a hundred questions a minute, because you know you have good reflexes and can respond very quickly.

Almost everything I do when I approach an operational problem comes from the time I've been in space. It's a way of organizing your thoughts. We use problem-solving; what we call "what-if-ing." What if this happened? What would we do? We go over plan B, C, D, E, F, and whatever else, depending on the criticality of what we're doing. This kind of thing can be applied almost everywhere, even at home.

We only think when we are confronted with problems.

Don't leave home without your sword - your intellect.

One of the fastest ways to find the solution to an issue or challenge you are facing is to ask the right questions.

It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.

All too often, we do smart things only after exhausting every conceivable dumb thing we could have done.

This idea of having back-up plans is ingrained into us to make us believe that that's the smart thing to do.

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgement, the manner in which information is coordinated and used.

Suppose you had a small electrical fire and... a structural engineer [looked] at your home's wiring [and] reports that the wiring is "shot" and there is a 50% chance that your house would burn down in the next few years unless you replace all the wiring. The job will cost $20,000... so you get an independent assessment. The next engineer agrees with the first warning. You can either continue to shop for additional evaluations until you find the one engineer in 1,000 that is willing to give you the answer you want, "Your family is not in danger" or you can change the wiring.

If you're smart, you'll think twice, when they start to sound off with advice.

I think what you expect of every candidate and ultimately of a president is to listen to the facts and to deal with things in a way that's smart and direct. I'm confident that's exactly what President [Donald] Trump will do.

If you are going to try and change things, you had better have your wits about you.

Any penalty - I've told you a hundred times - can be eliminated by concentration or good judgment.

Το know how to profit by good advice, requires nearly as much ability as to know how to act for one'self.

Good and solid analysis and a formal way of looking at a problem [are the core ingredients of good decisions].

Ralph... would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player.

To have a major breakthrough in policy, you have to be able to stop and think.

Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli

Part of what being a great founder is, is being both able to hold the belief, to think about where it is you want to be doing and want to be going, but also be smart enough that you are essentially listening to criticism, negative feedback, competitive entries.

The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence you may have.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

Rather than reacting to every risk we hear and see, we should make an effort to discern which ones we can do something about.

We need both information and thinking. Information is no substitute for thinking and thinking is no substitute for information.

Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.