Amos Tversky Quotes (5 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Famous Amos Tversky Quotes

“Happy species endowed with infinite appreciation of pleasures and low sensitivity to pain would probably not survive the evolutionary battle.”

Amos Tversky

attributed, but source not available.

“It's frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what is going on.”

Amos Tversky

attributed, but source not available.

“Let us take what the terrain gives.”

Amos Tversky

Source: A phrase Tversky used increasingly often in the last few years with respect to choosing areas of research. Daniel Kahneman, 2002 Nobel Prize address. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2002/kahneman/biographical/

“It is sometimes easier to make the world a better place than to prove you have made the world a better place.”

Amos Tversky

Source: As remembered by Don Redelmeir, Michael Lewis, "The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World". Penguin, 2016 (ISBN 9780141983035).

“People predict by making up stories.
People predict very little and explain everything.
People live under uncertainty whether they like it or not.
People believe they can tell the future if they work hard enough.
People accept any explanation as long as it fits the facts.
The handwriting was on the wall. It was just the ink that was invisible.
People often work hard to obtain information they already have and avoid new knowledge.
Man is a deterministic device thrown into a probabilistic Universe. In this match, surprises are expected.
Everything that has already happened must have been inevitable.
A part of good science is to see what everyone else can see but think what no one else has ever said.
The difference between being very smart and very foolish is often very small.
So many problems occur when people fail to be obedient when they are supposed to be obedient, and fail to be creative when they are supposed to be creative
The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.
It is sometimes easier to make the world a better place than to prove you have made the world a better place.”

Amos Tversky

Source: Notes made by Tversky for a scientific paper, c.1972. Michael Lewis. "The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World". Penguin, 2016 (ISBN 9780141983035).