holistic problem solving Quotes

You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines, and use them routinely - all of them, not just a few. Most people are trained in one model - economics, for example - and try to solve all problems in one way. You know the old saying: to the man with a hammer, the world looks like a nail. This is a dumb way of handling problems.

I realize there are few sectors that can do what philanthropy does, which is look at big problems, take a long term view, try to develop strategies for addressing the root causes and then go about solving them.

Rather, my perceptions about how we solve problems in health care or education span across a whole range of areas. And I want to try to capture that complexity.

I have one very basic rule when it comes to "good ideas". A good idea is not an idea that solves a problem cleanly. A good idea is an idea that solves several things at the same time. The mark of good coding is not that the program does what you want, it's that it also does something that you didn't start out wanting.

It is a common experience that attempts to solve just one piece of a problem first, then others, and so on, lead to endless involutions. You no sooner solve one aspect of a thing, than another point is out of point. And when you correct that one, something else goes wrong. You go round and round in circles, unable to produce a form that is thoroughly right.

I’m not against thinking; I’m only against thinking that thinking on its own will get you out of a hole. Shovel also needed.

There is nothing more negligent than attempting to address a problem one finds on a branch than by censoring the leaves.

We shall find the answer when we examine the problem, the problem is never apart from the answer, the problem IS the answer, understanding the problem dissolves the problem.

I don't feel like I have a lot to offer in terms of an authoritative voice on a lot of political issue. I don't know how to fix the economy, or how to increase the number of jobs. That is not where I spent my life and thought and meditation. I guess I would like to think that the topics that I am discussing - the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins and the defeat of death - goes up river to all problem.

A good idea is something that does not solve just one single problem, but rather can solve multiple problems at once.

It's the diversity of intelligence, the diversity of creativity, that is so very much necessary to creating whole solutions.