I enjoy collecting quotes: behind each of these, there is a lesson I learned (sometimes painfully).
Some quotes by living people are left anonymous, as I’m not sure they would like to be quoted.
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
— Voltaire
Better is the enemy of good enough.
Nil difficili volenti.
Nothing is difficult to willing people.
The Feynman problem-solving algorithm:
1. Write down the problem.
2. Think very hard.
3. Write down the answer.Protip: usually people miss step 1.
The situation being desperate, everything is now possible.
Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
See also: We are sorry to inform you… (required reading before reviewing) and The importance of stupidity in scientific research.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Write a paper so that at least you yourself are able to read it five years from now.
I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I’ve written a long one instead.
— Pascal
If you try to talk to two people at the same time, you end up talking to the wall.
— Professor at Caltech
Don’t scoop yourself.
— Professor at Caltech
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Se la tua idea geniale non l’ha mai pensata nessuno, è probabilmente una minchiata.
If nobody had ever thought your genius idea, it’s probably worthless.
Che cos’è il genio? è fantasia, intuizione, decisione e velocità d’esecuzione.
— from Amici miei
What is genius? It’s imagination, intuition, willingness and speed of execution.
This is spoken in the movie Amici Miei referring to a rather crude practical joke, but it applies equally well to research.
Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
It appears that perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to remove.
Signals are not data,
data is not information,
information is not knowledge,
knowledge is not understanding,
understanding is not wisdom,
wisdom is not truth,
truth is not beauty,
beauty is not love,
love is not music,
music is the best!— Clifford Stoll + Frank Zappa
The price of metaphor is eternal vigilance.
The best model of a cat is another cat, or better yet, the cat itself.
— (Norbert Wiener or Arturo Rosenblueth)
A good man knows his limitations.
Relayed by a professor in Sapienza University, and valid equally well for estimation and control.
See also: Respect the unstable
La cultura è l’abitudine del pensare chiaro e logico, il coraggio del giudizio indipendente.
Culture is the habit of thinking clearly and logically, and the courage to an independent judgement.
The Three Laws of Roboticists:
- Never give a robotic demo.
- Follow your advisor’s advice, except when it contrasts with the first Law.
- Really, never give a robotic demo!
The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague.
— Dijkstra
Always keep one hand in the pocket.
— Anonymous professor in Sapienza University
This is all I remember from a course on control of electric motors a few years back, but it is really good advice.
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