You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
Charles KetteringRead
A research problem is not solved by apparatus; it is solved in a man's head.
Interpretation
A research issue requires intellectual effort and critical thinking rather than just tools.
This quote by Charles Kettering emphasizes the importance of human thought and creativity in solving research problems. It suggests that while tools and equipment can aid in the research process, true understanding and solutions come from the individual's mind and intellectual capability, highlighting the value of critical thinking and innovation in scientific endeavors.
In practice
In a seminar discussing innovative solutions in science, this quote highlights the importance of creativity.
You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
It is the 'follow through' that makes the great difference between ultimate success and failure, because it is so easy to stop.
When I was research head of General Motors and wanted a problem solved, I'd place a table outside the meeting room with a sign: "Leave slide rules here." If I didn't do that, I'd find someone reaching for his slide rule. Then he'd be on his feet saying, "Boss, you can't do it."
My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
I often say that research is a way of finding out what you are going to do when you can't keep on doing what you are doing now.
People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other people.
I don't walk into the lab in the morning thinking, 'I am a woman, and I will carry out an experiment that will conquer the world.' I am a scientist, not male or female. A scientist.
Ants make up two-thirds of the biomass of all the insects. There are millions of species of organisms and we know almost nothing about them.
To understand the universe in the state that it began in, the so-called Big Bang, we need laws of physics that work better than our current set of rules and procedures, which break down when we try to push them back to the beginning.
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
Those who have learned to walk on the threshold of the unknown worlds, by means of what are commonly termed par excellence the exact sciences, may then, with the fair white wings of imagination, hope to soar further into the unexplored amidst which we live.
We know very little about the universe. I personally don't believe it's uniform and the same everywhere. That's like saying the earth is flat.
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