WIST Quotations

Ackoff, Russell -- “Case Histories Five Years after,” Operations Research 8.2 (1960)

Dave — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 12:46:46 +0000

The only problems that have simple solutions are simple problems. The only managers that have simple problems have simple minds. Problems that arise in organisations are almost always the product of interactions of parts, never the action of a single part. Complex problems do not have simple solutions.

Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009) American organizational theorist, consultant, management scientist
“Case Histories Five Years after,” Operations Research 8.2 (1960)

Anderson, Poul -- Call Me Joe [Arne Viken] (1957)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

After all my time here, I’ve yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, didn’t become still more complicated.

Poul Anderson (1926-2001) American writer
Call Me Joe [Arne Viken] (1957)

Sometimes attributed to Arthur Koestler (who attributed the quote to Anderson). See here for more details (and a reference to WIST).

Wilde, Oscar -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
(Attributed)

After Johnson.