Butler Lampson Quotes

We can solve any problem by introducing an extra level of indirection.

Butler Lampson

• Problem
• Level
• Indirection

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• You can't solve a dignity problem with military force.

  

  Rand Paul
  • Problem
  • Military
  • Dignity

• Painting was a problem - you produce a thing, and then you sell it and get money, and that was quickly considered totally uncool.

  

  Rachel Kushner
  • Money
  • Problem
  • Painting

• Our problem is not adopting reforms, which we will do without question. It is not reaching an objective, which we will meet. But it is finding an end to the recession.

  

  Yannis Stournaras
  • Question
  • Problem
  • End

• Liberals have to get more comfortable with dealing with the poor as they actually are. I admire their refusal to look down on the least among us, but at some level, that can become an excuse to never really look at the problem at all.

  

  J. D. Vance
  • Problem
  • Down
  • Poor

• I'm used to being surrounded by really smart 22-year-old students who have no problem saying that something I suggested is not a very good idea.

  

  Harold E. Varmus
  • Good
  • Problem
  • Smart

• I think the real problem is that nobody buys albums anymore, so you don't get the depth of the artists that are out today. What you get is whatever they felt is politically correct to get on there and actually make some impact. I think that's where you're losing your depth. You're only getting the very top of everything. It really bothers me.

  

  Gary Allan
  • Real
  • Today
  • Problem

• You can always make a film somehow. You can beg, borrow, steal the equipment, use credit cards, use your friends' goodwill, wheedle your way into this or that situation. The real problem is, how do you get people to see it once it is made?

  

  Walter Murch
  • People
  • Real
  • Friends

• Bangalore now wants a person who doesn't only play politics. Bangalore needs a problem solver, and I am a problem solver. I will be the bridge between Bangalore and the Centre.

  

  Nandan Nilekani
  • Problem
  • Politics
  • Bridge

• As soon as science has solved one problem, new ones arise. This is the essence of science, and it applies, of course, also to the field of essential oils.

  

  Otto Wallach
  • Science
  • Problem
  • New

• This would not be a problem if I were driving a snowplow.

  

  Aaron Allston
  • Problem
  • Driving
  • Were

• Here's the problem the Free Syrian Army has. They really want to topple the regime in Damascus, and this is where most of the fight takes place, between Aleppo and Damascus for the Free Syrian Army.

  

  Jack Keane
  • Free
  • Problem
  • Fight

• I stand behind all the lyrics I've ever written; I don't have a problem with that.

  

  Ian MacKaye
  • Problem
  • Lyrics
  • Stand

• Now that I'm more mature, in a funny way, I can even appreciate that I've bad to become more aware of my body. Since I've chosen acting as my career, I have to keep my weight down anyway-I've been used to it for years, so it's no problem. And there's nothing I can't do.

  

  Dana Hill
  • Bad
  • Career
  • Funny

• There's no question that tar sands in Canada are probably the largest source of oil available to the U.S. over a long period of time. There's as much oil in the tar sands probably as there is in Saudi Arabia. The problem is, there's a huge capital requirement to develop that.

  

  T. Boone Pickens
  • Time
  • Long
  • Question

• I think it is a universal problem that we are so often cruel to the people we love.

  

  Vicki Lawrence
  • Love
  • Problem
  • For Her

• I think the New Bohemians' inability to say no was a big part of our problem.

  

  Edie Brickell
  • Think
  • Problem
  • Say

• I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence.

  

  Malcolm X
  • American
  • Man
  • Black

• That is what we know how to do better than anyone else: We know how to maximize value for our projects. If the government would like to hire my services to maximize value for their stake, they should approach me. No problem.

  

  Dan Gertler
  • Problem
  • Government
  • Value

• Our society is stuck between problem and solution when it comes to treating mental illness. We cannot find a solution until we agree on the problem. And it is my humble opinion that the problem is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the misunderstood. Instead, let us seek to pursue knowledge over fear. Let's find a way to save lives that can be saved.

  

  Hannah Hart
  • Society
  • Problem
  • Solution

• In, 1950, at the age, 19 I dropped out of St. George William College in Montreal, as it then was, and sailed for England on the Franconia. Foolishly, no arrogantly, believing I could put Canada and its picayune problems behind me, never dreaming it would become the raw material of most of my fiction and non-fiction. Or that I would care so deeply about its surviving intact.

  

  Mordecai Richler
  • Believe
  • Dream
  • College

• Most people define learning too narrowly as mere 'problem-solving', so they focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Solving problems is important. But if learning is to persist, managers and employees must also look inward. The need to reflect critically on their own behaviour, identify the ways they often inadvertently contribute to the organisation’s problems, and then change how they act.

  

  Chris Argyris
  • People
  • Important
  • Problem

• When we were attacked on Sept. 11, we knew the main reason for the attack was that Islamists hated our way of life, our virtues, our freedoms. What we never imagined was that the free press - an institution at the heart of those virtues and freedoms - would be among the first to surrender.

  

  William Bennett
  • Heart
  • Reason
  • Virtue

• In the view of the fact that nature is dying, political developments are of secondary importance.

  

  Wolfgang Hildesheimer
  • Political
  • Dying
  • Development

• We can solve any problem by introducing an extra level of indirection.

  

  Butler Lampson
  • Problem
  • Level
  • Indirection