Quote

Human knowledge has been changing from the word go and people in certain respects behave more rationally than they did when they didn't have it. They spend less time doing rain dances and more time seeding clouds.

Herbert Simon

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Herbert Simon
Less
Respects
Didn
Behave
Certain
Clouds
Human
Changing
Humans
Rain
Time
Spend
Seeding
People
Word
Rationally
Knowledge
Dances

More quotes by Herbert Simon

Image
Human beings know a lot of things, some of which are true, and apply them. When we like the results, we call it wisdom.
Herbert Simon
Image
Because he treats the world as rather empty and ignores the interrelatedness of all things (so stupefying to thought and action), administrative man can make decisions with relatively simple rules of thumb that do not make impossible demands upon his capacity for thought.
Herbert Simon
Image
The social sciences, I thought, needed the same kind of rigor and the same mathematical underpinnings that had made the 'hard' sciences so brilliantly successful.
Herbert Simon
Image
Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.
Herbert Simon
Image
Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.
Herbert Simon
Image
All correct reasoning is a grand system of tautologies, but only God can make direct use of that fact
Herbert Simon
Image
Many individuals and organization units contribute to every large decision, and the very problem of centralization and decentralization is a problem of arranging the complex system into an effective scheme.
Herbert Simon
Image
The engineer, and more generally the designer, is concerned with how things ought to be - how they ought to be in order to attain goals, and to function.
Herbert Simon
Image
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
Herbert Simon
Image
Most of us really aren't horribly unique. There are 6 billion of us. Put 'em all in one room and very few would stand out as individuals. So maybe we ought to think of worth in terms of our ability to get along as a part of nature, rather than being the lords over nature
Herbert Simon
Image
Most of what we do to get people ready to act in situations of encounter consists of drilling these lists into them sufficiently deeply so that they will be evoked quickly at the time of the decision.
Herbert Simon
Image
The intelligent altruists, though less altruistic than unintelligent altruists, will be fitter than both unintelligent altruists and selfish individuals.
Herbert Simon
Image
Mathematics is a language. We want scientists to be able to read it, speak it, and write it. But we are are not training them to be grammarians.
Herbert Simon
Image
No one has characterized market mechanisms better than Friedrich von Hayek
Herbert Simon
Image
Engineering, medicine, business, architecture and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent - not with how things are but with how they might be - in short, with design.
Herbert Simon
Image
I don't care how big and fast computers are, they're not as big and fast as the world.
Herbert Simon
Image
One of the first rules of science is if somebody delivers a secret weapon to you, you better use it
Herbert Simon
Image
Technology may create a condition, but the questions are what do we do about ourselves. We better understand ourselves pretty clearly and we better find ways to like ourselves
Herbert Simon
Image
In the computer field, the moment of truth is a running program all else is prophecy.
Herbert Simon
Image
By 1985, machines will be capable of doing any work Man can do.
Herbert Simon