“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”

—  Ursula K. Le Guin, Hainish Cycle

Source: Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Chapter 3 “The Mad King” (p. 42)

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 "When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep." by Ursula K. Le Guin?
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Ursula K. Le Guin292
American writer 1929–2018

Related quotes

“[Information processing is] the gathering, interpreting and synthesis of information in the context of organisational decision making.”

David A. Nadler (1948–2015) American organizational theorist

Source: "Information Processing as an Integrating Concept in Organizational Design." 1978, p. 614

Walter Scott photo

“Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be ay sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping.”

Walter Scott book The Heart of Midlothian

The Heart of Midlothian (1818), Ch. 8.

Philippe Kahn photo

“If a sleep monitor has electrodes and wires that look like something from Frankenstein's lab, you might not wear it consistently, and the information it gathers and reports may be compromised.”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

Scientific American June 18th, 2013, regarding the need for noninvasive wearable devices http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/next-big-thing-wearable-gadgets-very-small/.

“Business System Planning (BSP) and Business Information Control Study (BICS) are representative of enterprise analysis tools that are growing in importance and are likely to become mandatory for ant business that continues to grow and evolve.”

John Zachman (1934) American computer scientist

Source: Business Systems Planning and Business Information Control Study: A comparison, 1982, p. 31

Atifete Jahjaga photo

“Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions.”

Atifete Jahjaga (1975) politician from Kosovo

The Hill http://thehill.com/policy/international/232703-kosovar-president-atifete-jahjaga-the-four-key-ingredients-for-peace

Arthur W. Radford photo

“A decision is the action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.”

Arthur W. Radford (1896–1973) United States naval aviator

Quoted in Time Magazine: ARMED FORCES: Man Behind the Power http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936815,00.html, 25 February 1957.

Mercedes Lackey photo

“It's only gossip if you repeat it. Until then, it's gathering information.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: Intrigues

“For action to be rational, the beliefs on which it is based must themselves be well founded. In turn, this requirement is divided into two parts. On the one hand, the beliefs must be unbiased with respect to the information the agent possesses; on the other hand, he must gather an optimal amount of information.”

Jon Elster (1940) Norwegian academic

Reason and Rationality (2009)

Warren Buffett photo

“The approach and strategies are very similar in that you gather all the information you can and then keep adding to that base of information as things develop.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

&quot;Buffett on Bridge&quot; at Buffetcup.com (2013) http://archive.is/o4keX&lt;!-- obsolete link — no longer posted at this page as of 2014·08·28: http://www.buffettcup.com/Default.aspx?tabid=69 // also quoted in &quot;18 Reasons Why Wall Street Loves Bridge&quot; by Lucas Kawa at Business Insider (1 January 2013) http://www.businessinsider.com/why-wall-street-plays-bridge-2012-12?op=1--&gt; <br class="br">Context: The approach and strategies are very similar in that you gather all the information you can and then keep adding to that base of information as things develop. You do whatever the probabilities indicated based on the knowledge that you have at that time, but you are always willing to modify your behaviour or your approach as you get new information. In bridge, you behave in a way that gets the best from your partner. And in business, you behave in the way that gets the best from your managers and your employees.

Marshall McLuhan photo

“We have become like the most primitive Palaeolithic man, once more global wanderers, but information gatherers rather than food gatherers. From now on the source of food, wealth and life itself will be information.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

1990s and beyond, "The Agenbite of Outwit" (1998)

Related topics