Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.

In the future, instead of striving to be right at a high cost, it will be more appropriate to be flexible and plural at a lower cost. If you cannot accurately predict the future then you must flexibly be prepared to deal with various possible futures.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.

The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.

Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

Humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd.

I must say, I don’t feel very qualified to be a pop star. I feel very awkward at times in the role.

Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.

Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.

Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists.

An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.

To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.

Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.

Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.

In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.

Opportunity ideas do not lie around waiting to be discovered. Such ideas need to be produced.

We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.

People should realize we’re jerks just like them.

If you never change your mind, why have one?

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.