Quotes about Innovative Problem-solving

Everyday I meet folks who show me how to look at challenges differently.

Years ago when I was still in the field we ad this technique for dealing with problems we weren't exactly sure how to solve. We called it S-W-A-G." "What's that stand for?" "Scientific-Wild-Ass-Guess..

Florence Nightingale was never called "the Lady with the Lamp," but "the Lady with the Hammer," an image deftly readjusted by the war reporter of the Times since it was far too coarse for the folks back home. Far from gliding about the hospital with her lamp aloft, Nightingale earned her nickname through a ferocious attack on a locked storeroom when a military commander refused to give her the medical supplies she needed.

Write down as many different uses that you can think of for the following objects: a brick a blanket This is an example of what's called a "divergence test

I haven't failed. I've just found 10, 000 ways that don't work.

If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems

Focus on creating value by finding and solving problems for others.

you may not even need to code in order to prototype architecture—you can prototype on a whiteboard, with Post-it notes or index cards.

Facing four hundred million man-years of calculations, with a resulting railroad car full of strategy tables, enough to fill a Rolodex five miles long, I tried to simplify the problem. I

For every problem in a given discipline of science, there exists a species or other entity or phenomenon ideal for its solution. (Example: a kind of mollusk, Aplysia, proved ideal for exploring the cellular base of memory.) Conversely, for every species or other entity or phenomenon, there exist important problems for the solution of which it is ideally suited. (Example: bats were logical for the discovery of sonar.)

And what I wanted to do was, I wanted to explore problems and areas where we didn't have answers. In fact, where we didn't even know the right questions to ask.

You do not retreat from a road-block; you make your way around it, or look for another route to where you are going. And you learn to zigzag ... Take a different route, albeit a longer one.

A great idea solves multiple problems at the same time.

It was way cool, being the one who did the math.

The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk-taking, or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint.

It doesn't make any sense to make a key and then run around looking for a lock to open. The only productive solution is to find a lock and then fashion a key. It's easier to make products and services for the customers you seek to serve than it is to find customers for your products and services.

Lab assistants do what they're told. Scientists figure out what to do next.

A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck. So the question is: Have you ever done that?

Mitt Romney has spent his entire life finding ways to solve problems.

Let's stop adding v and just keep going, and try to think of a solution before we become an ironic footnote to salvage tug history, shall we?

No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. —ALBERT EINSTEIN

F1's ability to problem-solve is second to none and our ability to make rapid prototype parts is again second to none.

Engineers and entrepreneurs are fundamentally dissatisfied with the way the world is and want to make it better. There are so many things you could do with technology if you can match it up with real problems.

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you're on a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Of course, there are other strategies. You can change riders. You can get a committee to study the dead horse. You can benchmark how other companies ride dead horses. You can declare that it's cheaper to feed a dead horse. You can harness several dead horses together. But after you've tried all these things, you're still going to have to dismount.