Scott E. Page > Quotes

“Progress depends as much on our collective differences as it does on our individual IQ scores.”
― Scott E. Page, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

“A node’s betweenness score equals the percentage of minimal paths that go through a node. In a social network, people with high betweenness scores know more information and wield more power.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“When taking actions, wise people apply multiple models like a doctor’s set of diagnostic tests. They use models to rule out some actions and privilege others. Wise people and teams construct a dialogue across models, exploring their overlaps and differences.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“Often, scholars distinguish between complex systems—systems in which the entities follow fixed rules—and complex adaptive systems—systems in which the entities adapt. If the entities adapt, then the system has a greater capacity to respond to changes in the environment.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“For each individual among the many has a share of excellence and practical wisdom, and when they meet together, just as they become in a manner one man, who has many feet, and hands, and senses, so too with regard to their character and thought. Hence the many are better judges than a single man of music and poetry, for some understand one part, and some another, and among them they understand the whole. (Aristotle, Politics, book 3, chapter 11)”
― Scott E. Page, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

“diverse teams make better mousetraps.”
― Scott E. Page, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

“In an optimization-based model, preferences or payoffs are fundamental. In a rule-based model, the behavior is fundamental. Behavioral rules can be fixed or adapt.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment. —JOHANNES KEPLER”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“Mastery of models improves your ability to reason, explain, design, communicate, act, predict, and explore.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“If we can understand how to leverage diversity to achieve better performance and greater robustness, we might anticipate and prevent collapses.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“Дерева у лісі конкурують за світло та воду. Якщо у дерев певного виду розвивається більш висока крона або глибше коріння, це підвищує їхні шанси на виживання, але негативно позначається на інших видах дерев. Дерева не можуть приймати закони, що забороняють їм рости надто високими або добиратися корінням до глибших вод, тому соціально оптимальне рішення для них недоступне”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“Actions may be outside our control. Few people choose to be addicted to opioids or to be poor. Yet people take actions that produce those outcomes.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“Concave functions have slopes that decrease. Concave functions with positive slopes exhibit diminishing returns:”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“couldn’t claim that I was smarter than sixty-five other guys—but the average of sixty-five other guys, certainly. —Richard Feynman”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“People are diverse, we are socially influenced, we are error-prone, we are purposive, and we learn. In addition, people possess agency—we have the capacity to act.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“creates synergies. It allows the whole to be more than the parts. And diversity between communities provides robustness to major changes.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“When scientists speak of diversity, they can mean any of three characteristics of a population. They can mean variation in some attribute, such as differences in the length of finches’ beaks. They can mean diversity of types, such as different types of stores in a mall. Or they can mean differences in configuration, such as different connections between atoms in a molecule.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“Chaos is not randomness. Chaos refers to extreme sensitivity to initial conditions. If we change the initial point by a little bit in a chaotic system, we end up on different paths. Many chaotic systems are completely deterministic. If you know the current state, then you know all future states. When we speak of randomness, we often mean the exact opposite: complete unpredictability. The next flip of the coin does not depend in any way on the current flip of the coin.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“The models that characterize the robustness of neuronal networks bear little resemblance to the molecular biology models used to explain brain cell function, which in turn differ from the psychological models used to explain cognitive biases.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“Physics becomes chemistry, chemistry becomes biology, biology becomes psychology, and so on. Or, put another way: cells emerge from the interactions of atoms, organs emerge from the interactions of cells, and societies emerge from the interactions of people. Each level of emergence produces higher order functionalities.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“To rely on a single model is hubris.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“preventing riots depends less on reducing average levels of discontent than on appeasing people at the extreme.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“importance, essence, and averaging. The importance of diversity in complex systems is the central theme of this book. Why does diversity matter? What roles does it play? I show that diversity has many roles and effects. Diversity can provide insurance, improve productivity, spur innovation, enhance robustness, produce collective knowledge,”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“Figure 12.1: Maximal Entropy and Maximal Variance”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“Systems that produce complexity consist of diverse rule-following entities whose behaviors are interdependent. Those entities interact over a contact structure or network. In addition, the entities often adapt.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“Студенти коледжів обирали та завантажували музику за двох варіантів умов експерименту. У першому варіанті студенти не знали, які пісні завантажують інші. Ці умови описують світ до настання епохи Інтернету. У другому варіанті студенти бачили скільки завантажень припадає на кожну пісню. У варіанті без соціальної інформації, жодна пісня не отримала більше двохсот завантажень, і тільки одна пісня отримала менше тридцяти завантажень. Коли учасники експерименту бачили дані про скачування, одна пісня отримала понад триста завантажень і більше половини пісень менше тридцяти завантажень. Інформація та вплив соціального середовища посилюють ефект Матвія. Багаті стають ще багатшими, а бідні — відносно біднішими.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“When behavior is socially influenced, extreme actions can create spillovers. This occurs when political activists energize voters. We will encounter this effect of diversity when we model riots.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“diverse, connected, interdependent entities whose behavior is determined by rules, which may adapt, but need not. The interactions of these entities often produce phenomena that are more than the parts. These phenomena are called emergent.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity

“when our thinking is informed by diverse logically consistent, empirically validated frames, we are more likely to make wise choices.”
― Scott E. Page, The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You

“intervention can have large effects. To do that, we must undertake the relatively pedestrian exercises of defining the pieces and figuring out how those pieces fit together.”
― Scott E. Page, Diversity and Complexity