“The fact that human intuition is ill suited to situations involving uncertainty was known as early as the 1930's, when researchers noted that people could neither make up a sequence of numbers that passed mathematical tests for randomness nor recognize reliably whether a given string was randomly generated.”

— Leonard Mlodinow, book The Drunkard's Walk

Prologue, p. ix
The Drunkard's Walk

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Leonard Mlodinow17

American physicist, author and screenwriter 1954

Brian Hayes (scientist) (1900) American scientist, columnist and author

Source: Group Theory in the Bedroom (2008), Chapter 2, Random Resources, p. 35

“Neither in nature nor among human beings are either equal or randomly distributed outcomes automatic. On the contrary, grossly unequal distributions of outcomes are common, both in nature and among people, in circumstances where neither genes nor discrimination are involved… The idea that it would be a level playing field, if it were not for either genes or discrimination, is a preconception in defiance of both logic and facts.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Source: Discriminations and Disparities (2018), p. 17.

“The definition of random in terms of a physical operation is notoriously without effect on the mathematical operations of statistical theory because so far as these mathematical operations are concerned random is purely and simply an undefined term. The formal and abstract mathematical theory has an independent and sometimes lonely existence of its own. But when an undefined mathematical term such as random is given a definite operational meaning in physical terms, it takes on empirical and practical significance. Every mathematical theorem involving this mathematically undefined concept can then be given the following predictive form: If you do so and so, then such and such will happen.”

Walter A. Shewhart (1891–1967) American statistician

[Shewhart, Walter A., Deming, William E., Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, The Graduate School, The Department of Agriculture, 1939, 18]
Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product,1931

“The history of mathematics is important also as a valuable contribution to the history of civilization. Human progress is closely identified with scientific thought. Mathematical and physical researches are a reliable record of intellectual progress.”

Florian Cajori book A History of Mathematics

Source: A History of Mathematics (1893), p. 4; Cited in: Moritz (1914, 90); Study and research in mathematics

“I believe it is pretty well established now that neither the intuition of the sales manager nor even the first reaction of the public is a reliable measure of the value of a product to the consumer.”

Edwin H. Land (1909–1991) American scientist and inventor

Research by the Business Itself (1945)
Context: I believe it is pretty well established now that neither the intuition of the sales manager nor even the first reaction of the public is a reliable measure of the value of a product to the consumer. Very often the best way to find out whether something is worth making is to make it, distribute it, and then to see, after the product has been around a few years, whether it was worth the trouble. <!-- p. 83

“Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random”

Donald Ervin Knuth book The Art of Computer Programming

Vol. II, Seminumerical Algorithms
The Art of Computer Programming (1968–2011)

“The test of learning psychology is whether your understanding of situations you encounter has changed, not whether you have learned a new fact.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow

“"How to test?" is a question that cannot be answered in general. "When to test?" however, does have a general answer: as early and as often as possible.”

Bjarne Stroustrup (1950) Danish computer scientist, creator of C++

“The point at which life becomes 'worthless,' and the point at which the means necessary to preserve it become 'extraordinary' or 'inappropriate,' are neither set forth in the Constitution nor known to the nine Justices of this Court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random from the Kansas City telephone directory…[therefore] even when it is demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that a patient no longer wishes certain measures to be taken to preserve her life, it is up to the citizens of Missouri to decide, through their elected representatives, whether that wish will be honored.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

On the court's lack of authority regarding the right to die: Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health, 497 U.S. 261 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=497&invol=261&friend=oyez (1990) (concurring). <br class="br">1990s

“I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Interview http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/int_pbert.htm for the Pierre Berton Show. Toronto, Ontario, (19 January 1965) <br class="br">Attributed <br class="br">Context: I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being, or one human being living around and with another human being.

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