In short, you can't let the deadline define the mission. The mission has to define the duration.
Richard HolbrookeRead
You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of validating assumptions with various perspectives and warns against overconfidence in uncertain situations.
Richard Holbrooke underscores the necessity of rigorously testing one's theories against alternative viewpoints, especially when navigating complex scenarios. The quote highlights the potential risks associated with being overly certain without sufficient evidence, advocating for a more cautious and open-minded approach to understanding the complexities of real-world situations.
Themes
TheoryHypothesisCertaintyComplexityDanger
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about climate change, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for thorough investigation and open-mindedness.
More from Richard Holbrooke
All quotes βIf a country denies it has AIDS, that country will inevitably become an even greater victim.
Richard HolbrookeRead
United Nations peacekeepers are going all over the world spreading AIDS even while they're trying to bring peace. What a supreme irony.
Richard HolbrookeRead
World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.
Richard HolbrookeRead
A world without the United Nations or with a paralyzed United Nations would be far more costly to all of us and far more dangerous to peace and stability.
Richard HolbrookeRead
Similar quotes
The ideas which led to the Analytical Engine occurred in a manner wholly independent of any that were connected with the Difference Engine. These ideas are indeed, in their own intrinsic nature, independent of the latter engine and might equally have occurred had it never existed nor even been thought of at all.
Ada LovelaceRead
And now the announcement of Watson and Crick about DNA. This is for me the real proof of the existence of God.
Salvador DaliRead
The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper
E. O. WilsonRead
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
Ernest RutherfordRead
Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...
David DeutschRead
We find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind that is not possible to obtain in any other way.
Johannes KeplerRead