“Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify the rules of competition by withdrawing entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are nomads by choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the subtle disciplines”

— Benoît Mandelbrot

Benoit Mandelbrot cited in James Gleick (1987) Chaos: Making a New Science p. 70

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify th…" by Benoît Mandelbrot?

Benoît Mandelbrot 56

Polish-born, French and American mathematician 1924–2010

Related quotes

“Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify the rules of competition by withdrawing entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are nomads by choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the subtle disciplines”

James Gleick book Chaos: Making a New Science

Source: Chaos: Making a New Science, 1987, p. 70. James Gleick quotes here Benoît Mandelbrot

“The free-traders were against all State interference of any kind; they were against the Factory Act, they were opposed to the laws to prevent fraud and adulteration, especially in the interests of the working classes, they were against trade unions, they were in favour of unlimited competition, they would buy everything in the cheapest market and especially labour. ... we cannot logically and consistently attempt to defend labour against unfair competition without defending at the same time against unfair competition the product of that labour.”

Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) British businessman, politician, and statesman

Speech in Birmingham (9 July 1906), quoted in The Times (10 July 1906), p. 11
1900s

“The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting in above-average effort.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

1990s, My American Journey (1996)

“If there were an international butt competition, Eric would win, hands down—or cheeks up.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead to the World

Source: Dead to the World

“The overriding paradox is that a democratic and vocational resistance to modernity, defined as the joint sovereignty of financial markets and public administration is the most efficient, competitive and sustainable modern position. The tragedy is that such a reasonable political position is unavailable within the mainstream of European politics, indeed there are those who argue that it would be illegal and an infringement of EU rules concerning competition.”

Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (1961) British philosopher

Politics, Employment Polices and the Young Generation, Maurice Glasman http://www.lse.ac.uk/economics/newsEventsSeminars/files/MauriceGlasmanPaper.pdf

“The essential complement to the path-breaking book Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter’s Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm.”

Michael E. Porter (1947) American engineer and economist

Competitive Advantage, 1985

“The political horizon would be greatly clarified if the voters were offered the choice of three parties representing three strategies: A conservative party”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

Property (1935)
Context: The political horizon would be greatly clarified if the voters were offered the choice of three parties representing three strategies: A conservative party committed to the preservation of individualism, perhaps in a highly modified form; a communist party bent upon revolutionary changes through violent seizure of power, confiscation, and a proletarian dictatorship; and a radical party seeking to socialize the basic industries and to move toward an equalization of economic privilege through purchase, taxation, and drastic regulation, without resorting to confiscation or armed seizure of power.

“I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.”

Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) American broadcast journalist

Free the Airwaves! (2002)

“The organizational fields of the largest firms continued to be unstable. There were no accepted rules to define how firms could avoid destructive competition, so they attempted to control their markets through various aggressive trade tactics, continued mergers, cartels, getting the federal government to guarantee profitability.”

Neil Fligstein (1951) American sociologist

Source: The transformation of corporate control, 1993, p. 89

“All struggles
Are essentially
Power struggles.
Who will rule,
Who will lead,
Who will define,
refine,
confine,
design,
Who will dominate.
All struggles
Are essentially
Power struggles,
And most
are no more intellectual
than two rams
knocking their heads together.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 8 (p. 94)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Benoît Mandelbrot 56

Related quotes

Related topics