James L. Brooks Quotes

Of course, not everybody's willing to go out and do the experiments, but for the people who are willing to go out and do that, - if the experiments don't work, then it means it's not science.

Carefully calculate the potential size of your market to make sure you can grow. Before starting Mint, I knew that there were about 20 million people who had purchased 'Quicken' or 'Microsoft Money' over the years, and 80 million people using online banking in the U.S. alone.

Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system.

When you start using test audiences, it becomes more scientific than it is about the work itself, and that's boring.

I've made mistakes in business, but none so big I couldn't recover and learn from them. The more you try to change consumer behaviour, the riskier it gets. You have to work out your potential losses against the obvious gains.

The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.

In the spirit of science, there really is no such thing as a 'failed experiment.' Any test that yields valid data is a valid test.

I am frequently astonished that it so often results in correct predictions of experimental results.

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

Traditional market researchers are cold and calculating and scientific.

Experimentation is an active science.

Indeed, every true science has for its object the determination of certain phenomena by means of others, in accordance with the relations which exist between them.

Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.

There are an infinite number of boring things to do in science.

The heart of science is measurement.

If you're an entrepreneur and you're starting a company, I think the first thing you do is you go and talk to a bunch of people. But then the next thing you probably should do is figure out if there's a broader demand than just people you know. That's where I think SurveyMonkey is pretty valuable to people.

These syllables, about 2,300 in number, were mixed together and then drawn out by chance and used to construct series of different lengths, several of which each time formed the material for a test.

My science teachers always encouraged their classes to 'go out and discover something' because all scientific endeavors depend on observation and experimentation. Through such pursuits, anyone can find something new to science, and if it's truly novel, the entire edifice of science might have to be restructured.

You need to make certain decisions to expand your market.

Research is so unpredictable. There are periods when nothing works and all your experiments are a disaster and all your hypotheses are wrong.

I think I was a born scientist.

If we are ever to discover the laws of nature, we must do so by obtaining the most accurate acquaintance with the facts of nature, and not by dressing up in philosophical language the loose opinions of men who had no knowledge of the facts

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

The business of biomedical research is mostly about failure. Few projects we commission will ultimately result in success. But every study we do contributes to the body of knowledge that brings science and society closer to a solution.

Don't spend months building something without any idea if someone actually wants it.