Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which we find ourselves.

Quote by Herbert Simon

Topics: Complexity Quotes

Forget about Nobel prizes; they aren't really very important.

Forget about Nobel prizes; they aren't really very important.

In the computer field, the moment of truth is a running program; all else is...

In the computer field, the moment of truth is a running program; all else is...

The world is vast, beautiful, and fascinating, even awe-inspiring - but impersonal. It demands nothing...

The world is vast, beautiful, and fascinating, even awe-inspiring - but impersonal. It demands nothing...

All correct reasoning is a grand system of tautologies, but only God can make direct...

All correct reasoning is a grand system of tautologies, but only God can make direct...

Most of us really aren't horribly unique. There are 6 billion of us. Put 'em...

Most of us really aren't horribly unique. There are 6 billion of us. Put 'em...

I don't care how big and fast computers are, they're not as big and fast...

I don't care how big and fast computers are, they're not as big and fast...

The engineer, and more generally the designer, is concerned with how things ought to be...

The engineer, and more generally the designer, is concerned with how things ought to be...

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a...

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a...

One of the first rules of science is if somebody delivers a secret weapon to...

One of the first rules of science is if somebody delivers a secret weapon to...

Human knowledge has been changing from the word go and people in certain respects behave...

Human knowledge has been changing from the word go and people in certain respects behave...

There are no morals about technology at all. Technology expands our ways of thinking about...

There are no morals about technology at all. Technology expands our ways of thinking about...

The proper study of mankind is the science of design.

The proper study of mankind is the science of design.

Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

Learning is any change in a system that produces a more or less permanent change...

Learning is any change in a system that produces a more or less permanent change...

Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.

Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.

Technology may create a condition, but the questions are what do we do about ourselves....

Technology may create a condition, but the questions are what do we do about ourselves....

No one has characterized market mechanisms better than Friedrich von Hayek.

No one has characterized market mechanisms better than Friedrich von Hayek.

Maybe we ought to have a world in which things are divided between people kind...

Maybe we ought to have a world in which things are divided between people kind...

The social sciences, I thought, needed the same kind of rigor and the same mathematical...

The social sciences, I thought, needed the same kind of rigor and the same mathematical...

One finds limits by pushing them.

One finds limits by pushing them.