Matthew May > Quotes

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. —ALBERT EINSTEIN I”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“it doesn’t necessarily take genius to spend resources . . . it does, though, to work within the resource constraints you’re given.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“The power of framestorming lies in its ability to engage our SLOW thinking in a manner that feels like FAST thinking. At the same time, it turns problems into puzzles. When we view something as a problem, we naturally engage in Leaping to solutions. When something is a puzzle, though, we naturally slow down a bit: we learn at an early age when doing puzzles that we need to get the corners and edges down first. Getting the puzzle frame right is half the battle!”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“putting in the necessary thinking work and refusing to accept the unattractive trade-offs, we can unleash our ability to build new and better models and create value for the world.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“where “Can-If” comes in. The concept is quite simple: force yourself to replace “can’t, because” with a “can, if” statement. If you’re on the Mars Pathfinder team, for example, “We can’t land a rover on Mars for $150 million, because landing modules cost too much” might become “We can land a rover on Mars if we figure out a way to land without a landing module.” You then keep going, using either another Can-If or, if a single Can-If does the trick, a Framestorming What if? or How? You never know, you might come up with the elegant solution the Pathfinder team did:”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“But tapping into the creative thinking of inventors and others on the outside would require massive operational changes. We needed to move the company’s attitude from resistance to innovations “not invented here” to enthusiasm for those “proudly found elsewhere.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“If you are uncertain, or lack evidence, about whether a particular outcome was caused by a preceding event, you are more likely to quickly associate them together,” says Sang Wan Lee, a postdoctoral scholar in neuroscience at Caltech”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“Satisficing is a real word, part satisfying and part sufficing, coined by the late economics Nobel laureate Herbert Simon his 1956 book Models of Man. He used it to describe our natural inclination to settle for “good enough” when faced with a decision. In general, we go with the first option that offers an acceptable payoff, choose the one that appears to get us “in the ballpark” quickest, but then stop looking for other ways, including the best way, to solve the problem.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“Many businesses . . . become highly skilled at using algorithms to produce outcomes that are reliable, that is, consistent and predictable. . . . Companies that devote all their resources to reliability lack the tools to pursue outcomes that are valid, that is, that produce a desired result.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“channel the instinct to act into behavior that feels like brainstorming,* but involves generating questions instead of answers.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“the best role of the consultant became clear to me: don’t attempt to convince clients which choice is best; run a process that enables them to convince themselves.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game

“relying on slack resources or ignoring constraints not only stifles creative thinking, but also breeds Overthinking.”
― Matthew May, Winning the Brain Game