“What goes wrong [in long-range planning] is that sensible anticipation gets converted into foolish numbers: and their validity always hinges on large loose assumptions.”
Cited in: Michael Armstrong, Tina Stephens (2005) A Handbook Of Management And Leadership. p. 71
The Naked Manager (1972)
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Robert Heller 21
British magician 1932–2012Related quotes
Source: An Introduction To Probability Theory And Its Applications (Third Edition), Chapter V, Conditional Probability, Stochastic Independence, p. 136.

volume II; lecture 26, "Lorentz Transformations of the Fields"; section 26-1, "The four-potential of a moving charge"; p. 26-2
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)

Vijay Govindarajan, Chris Trimble (2013), The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge. p. 18

Source: Fallen Leaves (2014), Ch. 5 : On Death

Max Weber (1949/2011), Methodology of Social Sciences, Edward E. Shils & Henry A. Finch (transl. & ed.). p. 55

Soros on Soros (1995)
Context: The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposition position. I assume that markets are always wrong. Even if my assumption is occasionally wrong, I use it as a working hypothesis. It does not follow that one should always go against the prevailing trend. On the contrary, most of the time the trend prevails; only occasionally are the errors corrected. It is only on those occasions that one should go against the trend. This line of reasoning leads me to look for the flaw in every investment thesis.... I am ahead of the curve. I watch out for telltale signs that a trend may be exhausted. Then I disengage from the herd and look for a different investment thesis. Or, if I think the trend has been carried to excess, I may probe going against it. Most of the time we are punished if we go against the trend. Only at an inflection point are we rewarded.