Scott > Scott's Quotes

“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

“Efficient” is being able to get things done. “Effective” is doing the right things in the right order, and making sure you address everything that is urgent, vital and important, in every part of your life.”
― Lee Cockerell, Time Management Magic: How To Get More Done Every Day And Move From Surviving To Thriving

“All of these people had character. None of them thought they were special people, born with the right to win. They were people who worked hard, who learned how to keep their focus under pressure, and who stretched beyond their ordinary abilities when they had to.”
― Carol S. Dweck

“Andrew Carnegie once said, “I wish to have as my epitaph: ‘Here lies a man who was wise enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he.”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

“True self-confidence is “the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.” Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

“a freshly sharpened pencil is about starting over, and never ceasing to hope for—and work for—the perfect point. While that perfection may never be attained, it is cowardly not to try.”
― David Rees, How to Sharpen Pencils

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”
― William H. Whyte

“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language—so the argument runs—must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. —George Orwell, 1946”
― Phil Simon, Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It

“Your job as a professional, however, is to digest, understand, process, produce and create information, knowledge and insights both for your company and for your personal development and career.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“This reflecting brain is slow, it needs sustained attention and concentration, and because of this it consumes lots of energy and easily becomes tired. For the purposes of this book it is very important to note that the reflecting brain can only handle one thought at a time; as such, it is like a serial processor.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“Reflection is sustained, focused critical thinking with a purpose. The goal is finding a solution to a problem, an answer to a question. It is conscious, persistent, logical, critical thinking at an abstract level: manipulating concepts, mental images, memories, hypotheses and theories in the absence of the objects or the phenomena we are thinking about. It’s about defining goals, making plans, conscious decisions and choices.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“MULTITASKING IS LIKE JUGGLING MANY BALLS WITH ONE HAND; IT CAN’T BE DONE”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“when people ask you to do something, you should think how much time the execution of the task will take you and then make it a rule that you never put tasks on a to-do list, but go immediately to your diary and find out when you have time, when you are going to do the task.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“instead of your brain spending maximal time and energy working for you, you force it to spend a lot of time and energy getting in and out of tasks.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“The conclusion is very simple: multitasking is very bad for your intellectual productivity.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“Taking a break for a brainworker is not losing time but refueling energy and sharpening your axe (think about the archiving brain) for the next task.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“not only do emotional reactions that we are consciously aware of influence our reflecting brain, but so do the unconscious emotional reactions and shortcuts of our reflex brain.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“to be useful, to develop understanding, insight and knowledge, the information has to be reflected on and stored in our long-term memory by our archiving brain. This is simply impossible to do without disconnecting.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“Albert Einstein: “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer”.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“The greatest gift in a real conversation, discussion or meeting is undivided attention.”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“The wise prince, therefore, has always avoided these arms and turned to his own and has been willing rather to lose with them than to conquer with the others, not deeming that a real victory which is gained with the arms of others.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“no principality is secure without having its own forces;”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“There is no expedient to which man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.” – SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS 1902”
― Theo Compernolle, BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

“In place of maps, whiteboards began to appear in our headquarters. Soon they were everywhere. Standing around them, markers in hand, we thought out loud, diagramming what we knew, what we suspected, and what we did not know. We covered the bright white surfaces with multicolored words and drawings, erased, and then covered again. We did not draw static geographic features; we drew mutable relationships—the connections between things rather than the things themselves.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“an organization’s fitness—like that of an organism—cannot be assessed in a vacuum; it is a product of compatibility with the surrounding environment.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Complexity, on the other hand, occurs when the number of interactions between components increases dramatically—the interdependencies that allow viruses and bank runs to spread; this is where things quickly become unpredictable.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“the developments of recent years have led to a completely different—and less predictable—world.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Complex systems are fickle and volatile, presenting a broad range of possible outcomes; the type and sheer number of interactions prevent us from making accurate predictions.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“We have moved from data-poor but fairly predictable settings to data-rich, uncertain ones.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“In a resilience paradigm, managers accept the reality that they will inevitably confront unpredicted threats; rather than erecting strong, specialized defenses, they create systems that aim to roll with the punches, or even benefit from them. Resilient systems are those that can encounter unforeseen threats and, when necessary, put themselves back together again.”
― General S McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World