“There are so many ways of being wrong and so few ways of being right that it is much more economical to study successes.”

— Richard Hamming

Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)

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Richard Hamming 90

American mathematician and information theorist 1915–1998

Susan Stebbing (1885–1943) British philosopher

As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 153

“This is the way things are, and the Game has been so successful that, like everything, it will get more and more successful until it stops being successful.”

George Goodman (1930–2014) American author and economics commentator

Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 8, Where The Money Is, p. 102

“We have always thought about design as being so much more than just the way something looks. It's the whole thing: the way something works on so many different levels. Ultimately, of course, design defines so much of our experience.”

Jonathan Ive (1967) English designer and VP of Design at Apple

Ive explaining his view on Apple's use of design in the product video shown at WWDC 2013 for iOS 7.

“I believe that only scientists can understand the universe. It is not so much that I have confidence in scientists being right, but that I have so much in nonscientists being wrong.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright (1978), p. 235
General sources

“The way is the beginning of all beings and the measure of right and wrong.”

Han Fei (-279–-232 BC) Chinese philosopher

from "The Way of the Ruler", Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings, Columbia University Press, New York, 1996. Translated by Burton Watson.

“Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things; it is no longer so much about producing something.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2000-09, Ai Weiwei, Nursing Head Wound, Sharpens Criticism, 2009

“However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead.”

Richard Dawkins book The Blind Watchmaker

Source: The Blind Watchmaker (1986), Chapter 1 “Explaining the Very Improbable”

“In many ways connection has been disastrous. We have confused information (of which there has been too much of) with ideas (of which there are too few. I found out much more about the world and myself by being unconnected.”

Paul Theroux (1941) American travel writer and novelist

Fresh Air Fiend (2000)

“There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

“Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

“There are so many ways of being wrong and so few ways of being right that it is much more economical to study successes.”

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Richard Hamming 90

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