Great Throughts Treasury

"Hiring consultants to conduct studies can be an excellent means of turning problems into gold -- your problems into their gold."

"Here we are in a flattening world, where innovation is the key to success, and we are failing to give our young people the tools they need to compete. Many countries are doing a much better job. Ireland, despite a devastated economy, just announced it will increase spending on basic research. Russia is building an ?innovation city? outside of Moscow. Saudi Arabia has a new university for science and engineering with a staggering $10 billion endowment. (It took MIT 142 years to reach that level.) China is creating new technology universities literally by the dozens."

"I?ve visited more than 100 countries in the past several years, meeting people from all walks of life, from impoverished children in India to heads of state. Almost every adult I?ve talked with in these countries shares a belief that the path to success is paved with science and engineering. In fact, scientists and engineers are celebrities in most countries. They?re not seen as geeks or misfits, as they too often are in the U.S., but rather as society?s leaders and innovators. In China, eight of the top nine political posts are held by engineers. In the U.S., almost no engineers or scientists are engaged in high-level politics, and there is a virtual absence of engineers in our public policy debates. Why does this matter? Because if American students have a negative impression ? or no impression at all ? of science and engineering, then they?re hardly likely to choose them as professions. Already, 70% of engineers with PhD?s who graduate from U.S. universities are foreign-born. Increasingly, these talented individuals are not staying in the U.S ? instead, they?re returning home, where they find greater opportunities."

"If sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance."

"If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance."

"If the Earth could be made to rotate twice as fast, managers would get twice as much done. If the Earth could be made to rotate twenty times as fast, everyone else would get twice as much done since all the managers would fly off."

"In a global, knowledge-driven economy there is a direct correlation between engineering education and innovation. Our success or failure as a nation will be measured by how well we do with the innovation agenda, and by how well we can advance medical research, create game-changing devices and improve the world."

"In any given year, Congress will appropriate the amount of funding approved the prior year plus three-fourths of whatever change the administration requests -- minus 4-percent tax."

"Law Number I: The best way to make a silk purse from a sow's ear is to begin with a silk sow. The same is true of money."

"Innovation is the key to survival in an increasingly global economy. Today we?re living off the investments we made over the past 25 years. We?ve been eating our seed corn. And we?re seeing an accelerating erosion of our ability to compete. Charles Darwin observed that it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change."

"Law Number III: There are no lazy veteran lion hunters."

"Law Number II: If today were half as good as tomorrow is supposed to be, it would probably be twice as good as yesterday was."

"It is better to be the reorganizer than the reorganize."

"Law Number IX: Acronyms and abbreviations should be used to the maximum extent possible to make trivial ideas profound ... Q.E.D."

"Law Number IV: If you can afford to advertise, you don't need to."

"Law Number LII: People working in the private sector should try to save money. There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again."

"Law Number L: The average regulation has a life span one-fifth as long as a chimpanzee's and one-tenth as long as a human's, but four times as long as the officials who created it."

"Law Number LI: By the time of the United States Tricentennial, there will be more government workers than there are workers."

"Law Number V: One-tenth of the participants produce over one-third of the output. Increasing the number of participants merely reduces the average output."

"Law Number VI: A hungry dog hunts best. A hungrier dog hunts even better."

"Law Number VII: Decreased business base increases overhead. So does increased business base."

"Law Number X: Bulls do not win bullfights; people do. People do not win people fights; lawyers do."

"Law Number VIII: The most unsuccessful four years in the education of a cost-estimator is fifth grade arithmetic."

"Law Number XII: It costs a lot to build bad products."

"Law Number XI: If the Earth could be made to rotate twice as fast, managers would get twice as much done. If the Earth could be made to rotate twenty times as fast, everyone else would get twice as much done since all the managers would fly off."

"Law Number XIX: Although most products will soon be too costly to purchase, there will be a thriving market in the sale of books on how to fix them."

"Law Number XIV: After the year 2015, there will be no airplane crashes. There will be no takeoffs either, because electronics will occupy 100 percent of every airplane's weight."

"Law Number XIII: There are many highly successful businesses in the United States. There are also many highly paid executives. The policy is not to intermingle the two."

"Law Number XLI: The more one produces, the less one gets."

"Law Number XL: Most projects start out slowly and then sort of taper off."

"Law Number XLIV: Aircraft flight in the 21st century will always be in a westerly direction, preferably supersonic, crossing time zones to provide the additional hours needed to fix the broken electronics."

"Law Number XLIII: Hardware works best when it matters the least."

"Law Number XLII: Simple systems are not feasible because they require infinite testing."

"Law Number XLVI: A billion saved is a billion earned."

"Law Number XLIX: Regulations grow at the same rate as weeds."

"Law Number XLV: One should expect that the expected can be prevented, but the unexpected should have been expected."

"Law Number XLVII: Two-thirds of the Earth's surface is covered with water. The other third is covered with auditors from headquarters."

"Law Number XLVIII: The more time you spend talking about what you have been doing, the less time you have to spend doing what you have been talking about. Eventually, you spend more and more time talking about less and less until finally you spend all your time talking about nothing."

"Law Number XV: The last 10 percent of performance generates one-third of the cost and two-thirds of the problems."

"Law Number XVI: In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day."

"Law Number XX: In any given year, Congress will appropriate the amount of funding approved the prior year plus three-fourths of whatever change the administration requests, minus 4-percent tax."

"Law Number XVIII: It is very expensive to achieve high unreliability. It is not uncommon to increase the cost of an item by a factor of ten for each factor of ten degradation accomplished."

"Law Number XVI: Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases."

"Law Number XXI: It's easy to get a loan unless you need it."

"Law Number XXII: If stock market experts were so expert, they would be buying stock, not selling advice."

"Law Number XXIII: Any task can be completed in only one-third more time than is currently estimated."

"Law Number XXIV: The only thing more costly than stretching the schedule of an established project is accelerating it, which is itself the most costly action known to man."

"Law Number XXIX: Executives who do not produce successful results hold on to their jobs only about five years. Those who produce effective results hang on about half a decade."

"Law Number XXVI: If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance."

"Law Number XXV: A revised schedule is to business what a new season is to an athlete or a new canvas to an artist."