In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.
Ben BernankeRead
I think one of the lessons of the Depression - and this is something that Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated - was that when orthodoxy fails, then you need to try new things. And he was very willing to try unorthodox approaches when the orthodox approach had shown that it was not adequate.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of innovation and adaptability in times of crisis.
Ben Bernanke reflects on the lessons learned during the Great Depression, highlighting Franklin Roosevelt's willingness to abandon traditional methods and embrace innovative solutions when faced with failure. This adaptability is portrayed as essential for overcoming challenges, suggesting that rigid adherence to established practices can be detrimental in times of need.
In practice
In a business meeting discussing strategies for economic recovery.
In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.
Education - lifelong education for everyone - from toddlers to workers well advanced in their careers - is indeed an excellent investment for individuals and society as a whole.
Nobody likes to fail but failure is an essential part of life and of learning. If your uniform isn't dirty, you haven't been in the game.
Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who thinks they know where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination.
The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.
Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.
The strength of a theory is not what it allows, but what it prohibits; if you can invent an equally persuasive explanation for any outcome, you have zero knowledge.
Action is the process whereby what is not fully formed passes into expressive consciousness.
Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.
Now, if you notice how the swan, putting its neck down into the deep water, brings up food for itself from below, then you will discover the wisdom of the Creator, in that He gave it a neck longer than its feet for this reason, that it might, as if lowering a sort of fishing line, procure the food hidden in the deep water.
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.