Obliquity Quotes

“No one will be buried with the epitaph ‘He maximised shareholder value”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“Through experiences we normally associate with unhappiness they achieve greater happiness than if they had sought happiness directly.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“I am not saying that personal development is more important than winning; on the contrary, I am saying that enjoying the journey of self-discovery, by removing some of the pressure and angst associated with winning at all costs, is one way of helping you to win more often.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“Art,” said Picasso, “is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“There is a role for carrots and sticks, but to rely on carrots and sticks alone is effective only when we employ donkeys and we are sure exactly what we want the donkeys to do.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“… the problem, and our understanding of it, changes as we tackle it.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“The job of the artist or the poet or the educator or the business person is not just to paint what we want to see, write what we want to read and hear, teach us what we want to learn or produce what we want to buy. Their role is to interpret the underlying high-level objectives that we seek from art, poetry, education, or goods and services more fully than we could ourselves articulate them. Success in recasting problems to achieve our objectives more effectively than we had conceived distinguishes the great from the merely competent ad demonstrates why the direct approach is so often banal. ”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“If we sometimes recast problems before we begin, more often we revise our specification in the process of actually tackling them.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“The computer is very good at solving the problem we have specified and asked it to solve, but less useful when we are not quite sure what the problem is.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“Success depends on the flair, skills and initiative of people who cannot be effectively supervised.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“Effective decision makers are distinguished not so much by the superior extent of their knowledge as by their being aware of its limitations.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“We don’t consider any man successful until he has died well.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“We incline to see history through the lives of great men. That inclination blinds us to the real complexity …”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

“The criteria that determine artistic success are ultimately determined by artists, not critics, and great art itself changes what these criteria are.”
― John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly