Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts

10 August 2025

📉Graphical Representation: Donut Charts (Just the Quotes)

"The donut, its spelling betrays its origins, is nearly always more deceit friendly than the pie, despite being modelled on a life-saving ring. This is because the hole destroys the second most important value- defining element, by hiding the slice angles in the middle." (Nicholas Strange, "Smoke and Mirrors: How to bend facts and figures to your advantage", 2007)

"There are some chart types that occasionally appear in print but are so bad that they serve neither honesty nor deceit. Among these monuments to human ingenuity at the expense of common sense are the concentric donut and overlapping segments. The concentric donut is really just a bar or column chart bent back on itself to save space. However as anyone who has ever watched a two or four hundred metre race will know, to make sense of the order of arrival at the tape you have to stagger the start to take account of the bend in the track. Blithely ignoring this problem, the concentric donut uses to diminish the difference between the inner and the outer absolute values by anything up to 2.5 times." (Nicholas Strange, "Smoke and Mirrors: How to bend facts and figures to your advantage", 2007)

"The problem is that a pie chart does one thing well, and most people don’t use it for that one thing. Specifically, they’re great at giving you a fast and accurate estimate of the part-to-whole relationship for two of the slices. Other than that, pie charts are terrible. [...] The same strengths and shortcomings that apply to the pie chart also apply to the donut chart." (Steve Wexler, "The Big Picture: How to use data visualization to make better decisions - faster", 2021)

"Donuts appear to have the advantage over pie charts of allowing for the comparison of multiple series, one in each ring, which makes them the circular version of stacked bar charts. In fact, though, there is little value in this, for it only helps to compare the first and last values of each series, just like the stacked bar chart." (Jorge Camões, "Data at Work: Best practices for creating effective charts and information graphics in Microsoft Excel", 2016)

"A donut chart serves the same purpose as a pie chart, built with the same parameters, with the only difference being the hole (or properly termed, the 'donut hole') in the center. [...] What purpose does the hole serve? Nothing special. We can put the total value there, but there is no such standard option. We can get this result combining two visuals: donut chart and card with total value." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

"[...] a sunburst chart where the center is either a pie chart or a donut chart of the biggest categories surrounded in donuts that show each of the other levels. The outside donut has the leaf nodes [...]" (Nancy Organ, "Data Visualization for People of All Ages", 2024)

"Analysis of the composition of the whole, where the emphasis is not on quantity, but on percentages. It helps to understand which segments and categories contribute the most to the overall result; for example, sales structure by markets, expenditure structure by projects. The basic figure is a circle divided into sectors. Hence the metaphor of 'pie' and 'donut'." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI: How to Design Savvy Dashboards", 2024)

"And here’s another warning - displaying the timeline at the pie or donut. It may seem like a good idea to show quarterly sales shares, and the chart will look neat. But this will distort the meaning: the timeline should be directed horizontally from left to right, from past to future. The same works for any time period: days, months, years. This is a common pattern of perception, and we do not recommend breaking it." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI: How to Design Savvy Dashboards", 2024)

"Pie and donut charts have the same purpose - visualizing the structure for a small number of categories (usually no more than six). These charts are built using the same parameters, with the only difference being that the donut chart has an inner space. They don’t have x-and yaxes, and for customization, you need to follow simple steps." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

"Pie charts, donut charts, and meter charts are really just stacked bar charts that have been bent - but remember that they should always add up to 100%. Radar charts use angle to show categories and position to show amounts. You can also use angle with position to create charts that show movement, direction, or change - on maps and on graphs with number axes, as well as on visualizations with category axes." (Nancy Organ, "Data Visualization for People of All Ages", 2024)

"Treemap is a visualization type used to display hierarchical data in a more structured way than pie or donut charts. In a treemap, rectangles are used instead of sectors. A treemap utilizes space more efficiently and accommodates a larger number of elements." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

"Structure shows which segments and categories contribute the most to the overall result. For visualizing such data, a circle divided into sectors - a pie chart - is usually used. A donut chart has the same meaning, is built on the same parameters, and differs only in the space inside." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

"What’s the difference between them? Studies have shown that they are perceived almost equally. Our eyes gauge the size of the outer arc: a quarter, a third, half, and so on. We surveyed our students and clients to find out which option they prefer. Some say that the ring (donut) looks somehow fresher and more interesting because the pie chart has become boring. But for others, the circle seems clearer. You can choose according to your taste. However, we prefer classic pie charts because they utilize the entire area of the figure for visualization." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

09 August 2025

📉Graphical Representation: Tree Maps (Just the Quotes)

"The great advantage of the treemap over conventional tree views is that the amount of information on each branch of the tree can be easily visualized. Because the method is space-filling, it can show quite large trees containing thousands of branches. The disadvantage is that the hierarchical structure is not as clear as it is in a more conventional tree drawing, which is a specialized form of node–link diagram." (Colin Ware, "Information Visualization: Perception for Design" 2nd Ed., 2004)

"Like a pie chart, a treemap is used for a part-of-a-whole analysis, but because you have better control over the rectangle sizes than over slices, you can have many more data points. Unlike with traditional pie charts, you can arrange the data hierarchically. You can compare a rectangle to all data points or to its own branch." (Jorge Camões, "Data at Work: Best practices for creating effective charts and information graphics in Microsoft Excel", 2016)

"Tree maps are similar to pie charts in that they show parts of a whole but, unlike pie charts, they can incorporate more individual pieces without cluttering the graphic. Tree maps are particularly good at presenting information like budgets, which often include more elements than can be effectively communicated through a pie chart." (Christopher Lysy, "Developments in Quantitative Data Display and Their Implications for Evaluation", 2013)

"Even though its recursive composition is similar to rectangular treemaps, the Voronoi treemap allows an improved sub division of a given area that avoids similar shapes and aspect ratios, by making the location and contour of individual cells highly adaptive and configurable. Due to their flexible organizational principle, Voronoi treemaps are known for their organic layouts, featuring a rich, diverse assortment of shapes and con figurations that can resemble stained glass or enthralling natural patterns. The model has wide applicability and it has proved popular in the visualization of file systems and genome data." (Manuel Lima, "The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge", 2014)

"Of all visualization models, vertical trees are the ones that retain the strongest resemblance to figurative trees, due to their vertical layout and forking arrangement from a central trunk. In most cases they are inverted trees, with the root at the top, emphasizing the notion of descent and representing a more natural writing pattern from top to bottom." (Manuel Lima, "The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge", 2014)

"Sunbursts, also known as radial treemaps, tree rings, fan charts, or nested pie charts, are a space-filling visualization technique that uses a radial layout, as opposed to the more widespread rectangular type. Similar to radial trees, sunbursts normally start with a central root, or top level of hierarchy, with the remaining ranks expanding outward from the middle. However, instead of a node-link construct sunbursts employ a sequence of segmented rings and juxtaposed cells" (Manuel Lima, "The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge", 2014)

"The rectangular treemap, sometimes called the mosaic graph, is a space-filling visualization model used for displaying hierarchical data by means of nested rectangles. Each major branch of the tree is depicted as a rectangle, which is then sequentially tiled with smaller rectangles representing its subbranches. The area of each individual cell generally corresponds to a given quantity or data attri bute, for example size, length, price, time, or temperature. Color can indicate an additional quality, such as type, class, gender, or category." (Manuel Lima, "The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge", 2014)

"The decomposition tree is an interactive visualization for hierarchical data. The concept is to take a single metric and drill it down into various dimensions." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

"Treemap is a visualization type used to display hierarchical data in a more structured way than pie or donut charts. In a treemap, rectangles are used instead of sectors. A treemap utilizes space more efficiently and accommodates a larger number of elements." (Alex Kolokolov & Maxim Zelensky, "Data Visualization with Microsoft Power BI", 2024)

🖍️David R Cox - Collected Quotes

"Exact truth of a null hypothesis is very unlikely except in a genuine uniformity trial." (David R Cox, "Some problems connected with statistical inference", Annals of Mathematical Statistics 29, 1958) 

"Assumptions that we make, such as those concerning the form of the population sampled, are always untrue." (David R Cox, "Some problems connected with statistical inference", Annals of Mathematical Statistics 29, 1958) 

"Overemphasis on tests of significance at the expense especially of interval estimation has long been condemned." (David R Cox, "The role of significance tests", Scandanavian Journal of Statistics 4, 1977) 

"There are considerable dangers in overemphasizing the role of significance tests in the interpretation of data." (David R Cox, "The role of significance tests", Scandanavian Journal of Statistics 4, 1977) 

"In any particular application, graphical or other informal analysis may show that consistency or inconsistency with H0 is so clear cut that explicit calculation of p is unnecessary." (David R Cox, "The role of significance tests", Scandanavian Journal of Statistics 4, 1977) 

"The central point is that statistical significance is quite different from scientific significance and that therefore estimation [...] of the magnitude of effects is in general essential regardless of whether statistically significant departure from the null hypothesis is achieved." (David R Cox, "The role of significance tests", Scandanavian Journal of Statistics 4, 1977) 

"At a simpler level, some elementary but important suggestions for the clarity of graphs are as follows: (i) the axes should be clearly labelled with the names of the variables and the units of measurement; (ii) scale breaks should be used for false origins; (iii) comparison of related diagrams should be made easy, for example by using identical scales of measurement and placing diagrams side by side; (iv) scales should be arranged so that systematic and approximately linear relations are plotted at roughly 45° to the x-axis; (v) legends should make diagrams as nearly self-explanatory, i.e. independent of the text, as is feasible; (vi) interpretation should not be prejudiced by the technique of presentation, for example by superimposing thick smooth curves on scatter diagrams of points faintly reproduced." (David R Cox,"Some Remarks on the Role in Statistics of Graphical Methods", Applied Statistics 27 (1), 1978)

"Most graphs used in the analysis of data consist of points arising in effect from distinct individuals, although there are certainly other possibilities, such as the use of lines dual to points. In many cases of exploratory analysis, however, the display of supplementary information attached to some or all of the points will be crucial for successful interpretation. The primary co-ordinate axes should, of course, be chosen to express the main dependence explicitly, if not initially certainly in the final presentation of conclusions." (David R Cox,"Some Remarks on the Role in Statistics of Graphical Methods", Applied Statistics 27 (1), 1978)

"So far as is feasible, diagrams should be planned so that (a) departures from "standard" conditions should be revealed as departures from linearity, or departures from totally random scatter, or as departures of contours from circular form; (b) different points should have approximately independent errors; (c) points should have approximately equal errors, preferably known and indicated, or, if equal errors cannot be achieved, major differences in the precision of individual points should be indicated, at least roughly; (d) individual points should have clearcut interpretation; (e) variables plotted should have clearcut physical interpretation; (f) any non-linear transformations applied should not accentuate uninteresting ranges; (g) any reasonable invariance should be exploited." (David R Cox,"Some Remarks on the Role in Statistics of Graphical Methods", Applied Statistics 27 (1), 1978)

"There are two general decisions to be made when displaying supplementary information, the first concerning the amount of such information and the second the precise technique to be used. The amount of supplementary information that it is sensible to show depends on the number of points. The possibility of showing such information only for relatively extreme points and possibly for a sample of the more central points should be considered when the number of points is large; thus in a probability plot of contrasts from a large factorial experiment it may be enough to label only the more extreme values." (David R Cox,"Some Remarks on the Role in Statistics of Graphical Methods", Applied Statistics 27 (1), 1978)

"It is very bad practice to summarise an important investigation solely by a value of P." (David R Cox, "Statistical significance tests", British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 14, 1982) 

"The criterion for publication should be the achievement of reasonable precision and not whether a significant effect has been found." (David R Cox, "Statistical significance tests", British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 14, 1982) 

"The continued very extensive use of significance tests is alarming." (David R Cox, "Some general aspects of the theory of statistics", International Statistical Review 54, 1986) 

"It has been widely felt, probably for thirty years and more, that significance tests are overemphasized and often misused and that more emphasis should be put on estimation and prediction. While such a shift of emphasis does seem to be occurring, for example in medical statistics, the continued very extensive use of significance tests is on the one hand alarming and on the other evidence that they are aimed, even if imperfectly, at some widely felt need." (David R Cox, "Some general aspects of the theory of statistics", International Statistical Review 54, 1986) 

"Most real life statistical problems have one or more nonstandard features. There are no routine statistical questions; only questionable statistical routines." (David R Cox)

08 August 2025

📉Graphical Representation: Series (Just the Quotes)

"If statistical graphics, although born just yesterday, extends its reach every day, it is because it replaces long tables of numbers and it allows one not only to embrace at glance the series of phenomena, but also to signal the correspondences or anomalies, to find the causes, to identify the laws." (Émile Cheysson, cca. 1877)

"In any chart where index numbers are used the greatest care should be taken to select as unity a set of conditions thoroughly typical and representative. It is frequently best to take as unity the average of a series of years immediately preceding the years for which a study is to be made. The series of years averaged to represent unity should, if possible, be so selected that they will include one full cycle or wave of fluctuation. If one complete cycle involves too many years, the years selected as unity should be taken in equal number on either side of a year which represents most nearly the normal condition." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)

"A graph is a pictorial representation or statement of a series of values all drawn to scale. It gives a mental picture of the results of statistical examination in one case while in another it enables calculations to be made by drawing straight lines or it indicates a change in quantity together with the rate of that change. A graph then is a picture representing some happenings and so designed as to bring out all points of significance in connection with those happenings. When the curve has been plotted delineating these happenings a general inspection of it shows the essential character of the table or formula from which it was derived." (William C Marshall, "Graphical methods for schools, colleges, statisticians, engineers and executives", 1921)

"Although, the tabular arrangement is the fundamental form for presenting a statistical series, a graphic representation - in a chart or diagram - is often of great aid in the study and reporting of statistical facts. Moreover, sometimes statistical data must be taken, in their sources, from graphic rather than tabular records." (William L Crum et al, "Introduction to Economic Statistics", 1938)

"[….] double-scale charts are likely to be misleading unless the two zero values coincide" (either on or off the chart). To insure an accurate comparison of growth the scale intervals should be so chosen that both curves meet at some point. This treatment produces the effect of percentage relatives or simple index numbers with the point of juncture serving as the base point. The principal advantage of this form of presentation is that it is a short-cut method of comparing the relative change of two or more series without computation. It is especially useful for bringing together series that either vary widely in magnitude or are measured in different units and hence cannot be compared conveniently on a chart having only one absolute-amount scale. In general, the double scale treatment should not be used for presenting growth comparisons to the general reader." (Kenneth W Haemer, "Double Scales Are Dangerous", The American Statistician Vol. 2" (3) , 1948)

"If a chart contains a number of series which vary widely in individual magnitude, optical distortion may result from the necessarily sharp changes in the angle of the curves. The space between steeply rising or falling curves always appears narrower than the vertical distance between the plotting points." (Rufus R Lutz, "Graphic Presentation Simplified", 1949)

"The use of two or more amount scales for comparisons of series in which the units are unlike and, therefore, not comparable [...] generally results in an ineffective and confusing presentation which is difficult to understand and to interpret. Comparisons of this nature can be much more clearly shown by reducing the components to a comparable basis as percentages or index numbers." (Rufus R Lutz, "Graphic Presentation Simplified", 1949)

"First, it is generally inadvisable to attempt to portray a series of more than four or five categories by means of pie charts. If, for example, there are six, eight, or more categories, it may be very confusing to differentiate the relative values portrayed, especially if several small sectors are of approximately the same size. Second, the pie chart may lose its effectiveness if an attempt is made to compare the component values of several circles, as might be found in a temporal or geographical series. In such case the one-hundred percent bar or column chart is more appropriate. Third, although the proportionate values portrayed in a pie chart are measured as distances along arcs about the circle, actually there is a tendency to estimate values in terms of areas of sectors or by the size of subtended angles at the center of the circle." (Calvin F Schmid, "Handbook of Graphic Presentation", 1954)

"Where the values of a series are such that a large part the grid would be superfluous, it is the practice to break the grid thus eliminating the unused portion of the scale, but at the same time indicating the zero line. Failure to include zero in the vertical scale is a very common omission which distorts the data and gives an erroneous visual impression." (Calvin F Schmid, "Handbook of Graphic Presentation", 1954)

"Besides being easier to construct than a bar chart, the line chart possesses other advantages. It is easier to read, for while the bars stand out more prominently than the line, they tend to become confusing if numerous, and especially so when they record alternate increase and decrease. It is easier for the eye to follow a line across the face of the chart than to jump from bar top to bar top, and the slope of the line connecting two points is a great aid in detecting minor changes. The line is also more suggestive of movement than arc bars, and movement is the very essence of a time series. Again, a line chart permits showing two or more related variables on the same chart, or the same variable over two or more corresponding periods." (Walter E Weld, "How to Chart; Facts from Figures with Graphs", 1959)

"Pie charts have weaknesses and dangers inherent in their design and application. First, it is generally inadvisable to attempt to portray more than four or five categories in a circle chart, especially if several small sectors are of approximately the same size. It may be very confusing to differentiate the relative values. Secondly, the pie chart loses effectiveness if an effort is made to compare the component values of several circles, as might occur in a temporal or geographical series. [...] Thirdly, although values are measured by distances along the arc of the circle, there is a tendency to estimate values in terms of areas by size of angle. The 100-percent bar chart is often preferable to the circle chart's angle and area comparison as it is easier to divide into parts, more convenient to use, has sections that may be shaded for contrast with grouping possible by bracketing, and has an easily readable percentage scale outside the bars." (Anna C Rogers, "Graphic Charts Handbook", 1961)

"Since bars represent magnitude by their length, the zero line must be shown and the arithmetic scale must not be broken. Occasionally an excessively long bar in a series of bars may be broken off at the end, and the amount involved shown directly beyond it, without distorting the general trend of the other bars, but this practice applies solely when only one bar exceeds the scale." (Anna C Rogers, "Graphic Charts Handbook", 1961)
"The impression created by a chart depends to a great extent on the shape of the grid and the distribution of time and amount scales. When your individual figures are a part of a series make sure your own will harmonize with the other illustrations in spacing of grid rulings, lettering, intensity of lines, and planned to take the same reduction by following the general style of the presentation." (Anna C Rogers, "Graphic Charts Handbook", 1961)

"An especially effective device for enhancing the explanatory power of time-series displays is to add spatial dimensions to the design of the graphic, so that the data are moving over space" (in two or three dimensions) as well as over time. […] Occasionally graphics are belligerently multivariate, advertising the technique rather than the data." (Edward R Tufte, "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", 1983)

"The bar graph and the column graph are popular because they are simple and easy to read. These are the most versatile of the graph forms. They can be used to display time series, to display the relationship between two items, to make a comparison among several items, and to make a comparison between parts and the whole" (total). They do not appear to be as 'statistical', which is an advantage to those people who have negative attitudes toward statistics. The column graph shows values over time, and the bar graph shows values at a point in time. bar graph compares different items as of a specific time" (not over time)." (Anker V Andersen, "Graphing Financial Information: How accountants can use graphs to communicate", 1983)

"The time-series plot is the most frequently used form of graphic design. With one dimension marching along to the regular rhythm of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, or millennia, the natural ordering of the time scale gives this design a strength and efficiency of interpretation found in no other graphic arrangement." (Edward R Tufte, "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", 1983)

"There are several uses for which the line graph is particularly relevant. One is for a series of data covering a long period of time. Another is for comparing several series on the same graph. A third is for emphasizing the movement of data rather than the amount of the data. It also can be used with two scales on the vertical axis, one on the right and another on the left, allowing different series to use different scales, and it can be used to present trends and forecasts." (Anker V Andersen, "Graphing Financial Information: How accountants can use graphs to communicate", 1983)

"A connected graph is appropriate when the time series is smooth, so that perceiving individual values is not important. A vertical line graph is appropriate when it is important to see individual values, when we need to see short-term fluctuations, and when the time series has a large number of values; the use of vertical lines allows us to pack the series tightly along the horizontal axis. The vertical line graph, however, usually works best when the vertical lines emanate from a horizontal line through the center of the data and when there are no long-term trends in the data." (William S Cleveland, "The Elements of Graphing Data", 1985)

"[decision trees are the] most picturesque of all the allegedly scientific aids to making decisions. The analyst charts all the possible outcomes of different options, and charts all the latters' outcomes, too. This produces a series of stems and branches" (hence the tree). Each of the chains of events is given a probability and a monetary value." (Robert Heller, "The Pocket Manager", 1987)

"Grouped area graphs sometimes cause confusion because the viewer cannot determine whether the areas for the data series extend down to the zero axis. […] Grouped area graphs can handle negative values somewhat better than stacked area graphs but they still have the problem of all or portions of data curves being hidden by the data series towards the front." (Robert L Harris, "Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference", 1996)

"Time-series forecasting is essentially a form of extrapolation in that it involves fitting a model to a set of data and then using that model outside the range of data to which it has been fitted. Extrapolation is rightly regarded with disfavour in other statistical areas, such as regression analysis. However, when forecasting the future of a time series, extrapolation is unavoidable." (Chris Chatfield, "Time-Series Forecasting" 2nd Ed, 2000)

"Comparing series visually can be misleading […]. Local variation is hidden when scaling the trends. We first need to make the series stationary" (removing trend and/or seasonal components and/or differences in variability) and then compare changes over time. To do this, we log the series" (to equalize variability) and difference each of them by subtracting last year’s value from this year’s value." (Leland Wilkinson, "The Grammar of Graphics" 2nd Ed., 2005)

"In general. statistical graphics should be moderately greater in length than in height. And, as William Cleveland discovered, for judging slopes and velocities up and down the hills in time-series, best is an aspect ratio that yields hill - slopes averaging 45°, over every cycle in the time-series. Variations in slopes are best detected when the slopes are around 45°, uphill or downhill." (Edward R Tufte, "Beautiful Evidence", 2006)

"[...] if you want to show change through time, use a time-series chart; if you need to compare, use a bar chart; or to display correlation, use a scatter-plot - because some of these rules make good common sense." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"if you want to show change through time, use a time-series chart; if you need to compare, use a bar chart; or to display correlation, use a scatter-plot - because some of these rules make good common sense." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"The first myth is that prediction is always based on time-series extrapolation into the future (also known as forecasting). This is not the case: predictive analytics can be applied to generate any type of unknown data, including past and present. In addition, prediction can be applied to non-temporal" (time-based) use cases such as disease progression modeling, human relationship modeling, and sentiment analysis for medication adherence, etc. The second myth is that predictive analytics is a guarantor of what will happen in the future. This also is not the case: predictive analytics, due to the nature of the insights they create, are probabilistic and not deterministic. As a result, predictive analytics will not be able to ensure certainty of outcomes." (Prashant Natarajan et al, "Demystifying Big Data and Machine Learning for Healthcare", 2017)

"With time series though, there is absolutely no substitute for plotting. The pertinent pattern might end up being a sharp spike followed by a gentle taper down. Or, maybe there are weird plateaus. There could be noisy spikes that have to be filtered out. A good way to look at it is this: means and standard deviations are based on the naïve assumption that data follows pretty bell curves, but there is no corresponding 'default' assumption for time series data" (at least, not one that works well with any frequency), so you always have to look at the data to get a sense of what’s normal. [...] Along the lines of figuring out what patterns to expect, when you are exploring time series data, it is immensely useful to be able to zoom in and out." (Field Cady, "The Data Science Handbook", 2017)

"A time series is a sequence of values, usually taken in equally spaced intervals. […] Essentially, anything with a time dimension, measured in regular intervals, can be used for time series analysis." (Andy Kriebel & Eva Murray, "#MakeoverMonday: Improving How We Visualize and Analyze Data, One Chart at a Time", 2018)

"Heat maps are effective visualizations for seeing concentrations as well as patterns. Adding time series to a heat map can also reveal seasonality that may not be obvious otherwise." (Andy Kriebel & Eva Murray, "#MakeoverMonday: Improving How We Visualize and Analyze Data, One Chart at a Time", 2018)

"Many statistical procedures perform more effectively on data that are normally distributed, or at least are symmetric and not excessively kurtotic" (fat-tailed), and where the mean and variance are approximately constant. Observed time series frequently require some form of transformation before they exhibit these distributional properties, for in their 'raw' form they are often asymmetric." (Terence C Mills, "Applied Time Series Analysis: A practical guide to modeling and forecasting", 2019)

"Showing the data and reducing the clutter means reducing extraneous gridlines, markers, and shades that obscure the actual data. Active titles, better labels, and helpful annotations will integrate your chart with the text around it. When charts are dense with many data series, you can use color strategically to highlight series of interest or break one dense chart into multiple smaller versions. " (Jonathan Schwabish, "Better Data Visualizations: A guide for scholars, researchers, and wonks", 2021)



19 July 2025

🏗️Software Engineering: Versioning (Just the Quotes)

"Programs are not used once and discarded, nor are they run forever without change. They evolve. The new version of the integration program has a greater likelihood of surviving changes later without acquiring bugs. It assists instead of intimidating those who must maintain it." (Brian W Kernighan & Phillip J Plauger, "The Elements of Programming Style", 1974)

"Systems with unknown behavioral properties require the implementation of iterations which are intrinsic to the design process but which are normally hidden from view. Certainly when a solution to a well-understood problem is synthesized, weak designs are mentally rejected by a competent designer in a matter of moments. On larger or more complicated efforts, alternative designs must be explicitly and iteratively implemented. The designers perhaps out of vanity, often are at pains to hide the many versions which were abandoned and if absolute failure occurs, of course one hears nothing. Thus the topic of design iteration is rarely discussed. Perhaps we should not be surprised to see this phenomenon with software, for it is a rare author indeed who publicizes the amount of editing or the number of drafts he took to produce a manuscript." (Fernando J Corbató, "A Managerial View of the Multics System Development", 1977)

"When the main design gets changed (as it will), you now have to think about where this design also exists. If you’re in this mode, you are either guaranteeing extra work to keep things in synch or you have a huge versioning problem where it is unclear which version to trust. The former will add time and costs. The latter can introduce errors and affect quality!" (F Alan Goodman, "Defining and Deploying Software Processes", 2006)

"If your code needs comments, consider refactoring it so it doesn’t. Lengthy comments can clutter screen space and might even be hidden automatically by your IDE. If you need to explain a change, do so in the version control system check-in message and not in the code." (Peter Sommerlad, [in Kevlin Henney’s "97 Things Every Programmer Should Know", 2010])

"Releasing software should be easy. It should be easy because you have tested every single part of the release process hundreds of times before. It should be as simple as pressing a button. The repeatability and reliability derive from two principles: automate almost everything, and keep everything you need to build, deploy, test, and release your application in version control." (David Farley & Jez Humble, "Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation", 2010)

"The deployment pipeline has its foundations in the process of continuous integration and is in essence the principle of continuous integration taken to its logical conclusion. The aim of the deployment pipeline is threefold. First, it makes every part of the process of building, deploying, testing, and releasing software visible to everybody involved, aiding collaboration. Second, it improves feedback so that problems are identified, and so resolved, as early in the process as possible. Finally, it enables teams to deploy and release any version of their software to any environment at will through a fully automated process." (David Farley & Jez Humble, "Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation", 2010)

"Many smaller Scrum projects succeed with informal requirements mechanisms such as direct discussion between the Product Owner and Team, but as project complexity and criticality grows, more depth and richness of requirements expression and requirements versioning will likely be required. For example, documentation of interfaces that affect multiple teams becomes critical. Changes to interfaces or new features that cross team boundaries may have a significant impact on the project. These requirements should be elaborated on a just-in-time basis, meaning at, or just prior to the Sprint that implements the new functionality. To address this problem, teams may want centralized support for richer forms of requirements expression, their compilation for review and automated change notification." (Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland, "Software in 30 days: How Agile managers beat the odds, delight their customers, and leave competitors in the dust", 2012)

"DevOps is essentially about gaining fast feedback and decreasing the risk of releases through a holistic approach that is meaningful for both development and operations. One major step for achieving this approach is to improve the fl ow of features from their inception to availability. This process can be refined to the point that it becomes important to reduce batch size" (the size of one package of changes or the amount of work that is done before the new version is shipped) without changing capacity or demand." (Michael Hüttermann et al, "DevOps for Developers", 2013)

"When people use different tools for similar activities" (e.g., version control, work tracking, documentation), they tend to form groups" (camps) around tool usage boundaries. [...] The more we are invested in certain tools, the greater the likelihood of deriving a part of our identity from the tool and its ecosystem." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Automated data orchestration is a key DataOps principle. An example of orchestration can take ETL jobs and a Python script to ingest and transform data based on a specific sequence from different source systems. It can handle the versioning of data to avoid breaking existing data consumption pipelines already in place." (Sonia Mezzetta, "Principles of Data Fabric: Become a data-driven organization by implementing Data Fabric solutions efficiently", 2023)

"Data products should remain stable and be decoupled from the operational/transactional applications. This requires a mechanism for detecting schema drift, and avoiding disruptive changes. It also requires versioning and, in some cases, independent pipelines to run in parallel, giving your data consumers time to migrate from one version to another." (Piethein Strengholt, "Data Management at Scale: Modern Data Architecture with Data Mesh and Data Fabric" 2nd Ed., 2023)

"When performing experiments, the first step is to determine what compute infrastructure and environment you need.16 A general best practice is to start fresh, using a clean development environment. Keep track of everything you do in each experiment, versioning and capturing all your inputs and outputs to ensure reproducibility. Pay close attention to all data engineering activities. Some of these may be generic steps and will also apply for other use cases. Finally, you’ll need to determine the implementation integration pattern to use for your project in the production environment." (Piethein Strengholt, "Data Management at Scale: Modern Data Architecture with Data Mesh and Data Fabric" 2nd Ed., 2023)

"Configuration is coding in a poorly designed programming language without tests, version control, or documentation." (Gregor Hohpe)

"God could create the world in six days because he didn't have to make it compatible with the previous version." (programmer folklore [attributed to Donald Knuth, Mark Twain])

"It is not usually until you’ve built and used a version of the program that you understand the issues well enough to get the design right." (Rob Pike)

"The third version is the first version that doesn't suck." (Mike Simpson)

14 March 2025

🧩IT: Short Quotes Used in Various Posts

Short quotes used in the various posts:

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved." (Charles F Kettering)Approaching a Query

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot." (Thomas Paine)Guiding Principles

"Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together." (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)Guiding Principles

"Data quality requires certain level of sophistication within a company to even understand that it’s a problem." (Colleen Graham): [Who Messed with My Data?]

"Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below." (John Dryden)
: [Who Messed with My Data?]

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." (Albert Einstein)Facts, Principles and Practices

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." (Henry L Mencken) [Who Messed with My Data?]

"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." (Abraham Maslow): [Who Messed with My Data?]

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." (Eisenhower quoted by Nixon)Planning Correctly Misunderstood

"It's a bad plan that admits of no modification." (Publilius Syrus)Planning Correctly Misunderstood

"Keep it simple, stupid" (aka KISS): Guiding PrinciplesFacts, Principles and PracticesSimple, but not that Simple

"Management is doing things right […]" (Peter Drucker)Guiding Principles

"No plan ever survived contact with the enemy." (Carl von Clausewitz)Planning Correctly Misunderstood

"Obey the principles without being bound by them." (Bruce Lee)Guiding Principles

"Students are often able to use algorithms to solve numerical problems without completely understanding the underlying scientific concept." (Eric Mazur): [Who Messed with My Data?]

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." (Hans Hofmann)Facts, Principles and Practices

"The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan." (Carl von Clausewitz)Planning Correctly Misunderstood

"The first obligation of Simplicity is that of using the simplest means to secure the fullest effect" (George Lewes, "Style in Literature")Designing for Simplicity

"The weakest spot in a good defense is designed to fail." (Mark Lawrence): [Who Messed with My Data?]

"To err is human; to try to prevent recurrence of error is science." (Anon): [Who Messed with My Data?

22 February 2025

🧩IT: The Annotated Laws that Govern IT Professionals' Lives - Part I

"A bad idea executed to perfection is still a bad idea." (Norman R Augustine) [Augustine's Law]

"Bad code executed by powerful machines is still bad code." [sql-troubles]

"A great many problems do not have accurate answers, but do have approximate answers, from which sensible decisions can be made." (Berkeley's Law)

"It's easier to take/sell approximations as accurate answers than to find accurate answers. In time people will see no difference in between." [sql-troubles]

"About the time you finish doing something, you know enough to start." (James C Kinser) [Kinser's Law]

"By the time you finish something, the problem changed." [sql-troubles]

"People will more likely repeat their known mistakes than trying something new." [sql-troubles]

"The ofter a method failed, the higher the chances for it to succeed when used by somebody else." [sql-troubles]

"People tend to reuse a method that previously failed (multiple times) than try something new." [sql-troubles]

"By the time we start something, somebody else solved already the problem." [sql-troubles]

"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." (Fred P Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays", 1975) [Brook's Law]

"Adding manpower seldom solves a problem that requires intelligent effort." [sql-troubles]

"The easiest way to make a project on time is to to move the deadline as suited." [sql-troubles]

"An object will fall so as to do the most damage." [Law of selective gravity]

"A bug will appear to do the most damage." [sql-troubles]

"Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough." (Wyszkowski's second law)
"Some problems do require infinite time." [sql-troubles]

"Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it." [Shaw's principle]

"Doing it the hard way is always easier." (Murphy's paradox)

"Doing it the easy way is always harder." [sql-troubles]

"Don't force it - get a bigger hammer." [Anthony's law of force]

"Don't optimize it, get a more powerful machine." [sql-troubles]

"Every solution breeds new problems." [Murphy's laws]

"Every new problem multiplies the possible solutions." [sql-troubles]

"It's easier to change the problem to fit the solution." [sql-troubles]

"Everyone has a scheme that will not work." [Howe's law]

"Any scheme can work by accident." [sql-troubles]

"It takes more than an accident for a scheme to work." [sql-troubles]

"Everything goes wrong all at once." (Quantized revision of Murphy's law)

"Small events converge toward bigger events." [sql-troubles]

"Things already went wrong before we observe them as such." [sql-troubles]

"If a problem causes many meetings, the meetings eventually become more important than the problem." (Arthur Bloch, "Murphy's Law (Price/Stern/Sloan", 1977) (Hendrickson’s Law)

"More meetings tend to create more problems." [sql-troubles]

 "Fewer meetings tend to create more problems." [sql-troubles]

"If a project is not worth doing at all, it's not worth doing well." (Gordon's first law)

"The more a project is not worth doing, the more attention will attract."  [sql-troubles]

"If an experiment works, something has gone wrong." [Finagle's first law]

"If anything can go wrong, it will." [Murphy's laws]

"Things go wrong at a faster pace than one can find solutions." [sql-troubles]

"If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it." [Murphy's Laws]

"It's enough one way, for things to result in catastrophes." [sql-troubles]

"Sometimes it's better to do nothing than make things worse." [sql-troubles]

"Once all the known wrong solutions were exhausted, one discovers a new wrong solution." [sql-troubles]

"If they know nothing of what you are doing, they suspect you are doing nothing." (Robert J Graham et al, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Project Management", 2007)  [Graham's Law]

"People are good at ignoring the obvious." [sql-troubles]

"The more one explains, the more one is misunderstood." [sql-troubles] 

"If you mess with a thing long enough, it'll break." [Schmidt's law]

"Things break by design." [sql-troubles]

"One can learn to break things, by simply playing with them." [sql-troubles] 

"It's easier to break than design things. One can find thousands ways on how to break the same thing." [sql-troubles] 

"In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct, beyond all need of checking, is the mistake." (Finagle's third law)

"In any collection of data there's at least a mistake." [sql-troubles]

"In any given set of circumstances, the proper course of action is determined by subsequent events." [McDonald's corollary to Murphy's laws]

"In crises that force people to choose among alternative courses of action, most people will choose the worst one possible." (Rudin's law)

"People go wrong with confidence." [sql-troubles]

"The more alternatives, the higher the chances to go wrong." [sql-troubles] 

"Information necessitating a change of design will be conveyed to the designer after - and only after - the plans are complete." [First law of revision:]

"In simple cases, presenting one obvious right way versus one obvious wrong way, it is often wiser to choose the wrong way so as to expedite subsequent revision." (First corollary

"The designer will get ahead of the design." [sql-troubles] 

"It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious." (Murphy's second corollary)

"It works better if you plug it in." (Sattinger's law)

"It works longer if you don't plug it in." [sql-troubles]

"It's not a question of IF the car will break down, but WHEN it will break down." (Murphy's theory of automobiles)

"It's not a question of IF a program will break down, but when the code will break down." [sql-troubles]

"The longer a program runs smoothly, the higher the chances that will break down soon." [sql-troubles]

"Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse." (Murphy's first corollary)

"The more on tries to fix things, the faster everything goes worse." [sql-troubles]

"Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence." (Manly's maxim)

 "One doesn't need logic to arrive at the right conclusion." [sql-troubles]

"Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value." (Murphy's constant)

"Most problems have either many answers or no answer. Only a few problems have a single answer." [Berkeley's Law]

"It's better to have a multitude of approximate solutions than one correct solution." [sql-troubles]

"Negative expectations yield negative results. Positive expectations yield negative results." (Non-reciprocal law of expectations)

"Negative results yield when there are no expectations." [sql-troubles]

"No matter how many things have gone wrong, there remains at least one more thing that will go wrong." (Murphy's law of the infinite)

"Things can go wrong in a multitude of ways." [sql-troubles]

"No matter how minor the job is, it's still over $50." (Murphy's rule of auto repair)

"No matter what the experiment's result, there will always be someone eager to: (i) misinterpret it, (ii) fake it, or (c) believe it supports his own pet theory." (Finagle's second law)
"It's easier to fake the experiment to get the right results." [sql-troubles]
"Nothing ever goes away." (Commoner's second law of ecology)
"Things do go away, but tend to come back." [sql-troubles]

"Nothing is as easy as it looks." (Murphy's first corollary)

"All things look simple until one dives deeper." [sql-troubles]

"Nothing is ever so bad that it can't get worse." (Gattuso's extension of Murphy's Law)

"Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse." (Finagle's fourth law)

"Once a mistake is corrected, a second mistake will become apparent." (Murphy's law of revision)

"Correcting mistakes introduces other mistakes." [sql-troubles]

"The chief cause of problems is solutions." [Sevareid's Law]

"The more time you spend in reporting on what you are doing, the less time you have to do anything. Stability is achieved when you spend all your time doing nothing but reporting on the nothing you are doing." [Cohn's Law]

"Reporting increases the needs for more information. The less one reports, the lower the need for further information." [sql-troubles]

"The more innocuous the modification appears to be, the further its influence will extend and the more plans will have to be redrawn." [H B Fyfe's second law of revision]

"The only thing more costly than stretching the schedule of an established development program is accelerating it, which is itself the most costly action known to man." (Norman R Augustine, "Augustine's Laws", 1983) [Law of economic unipolarity]

"The other line moves faster." (Etorre's observation)

"The other team moves faster." [sql-troubles]

"If you change lines, the one you just left will start to move faster than the one you are now in." (O'Brien's variation

"If you change a line, the whole codes breaks." [sql-troubles]

"The longer you wait in line, the greater the likelihood that you are in the wrong line." (The Queue Principal)

"The longer you wait for a deliverable, the greater the likelihood that it contains bugs." [sql-troubles]

"The perceived usefulness of an article is inversely proportional to its actual usefulness once bought and paid for." (Glatum's law of materialistic acquisitiveness)

"The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability." (Gumperson's law)

"The solution to a problem changes the problem." [Peers's Law]

"A problem to a solution changes thr solution." [sql-troubles]

"The tasks to do immediately are the minor ones; otherwise, you’ll forget them. The major ones are often better to defer. They usually need more time for reflection. Besides, if you forget them, they’ll remind you." [Wolf ’s Law of Management]

"There are two states to any large project: Too early to tell and too late to stop." (Ernest Fitzgerald) [Fitzgerald's Law]

"There is a solution to every problem; the only difficulty is finding it." [Evvie Nef's Law]

"There is a solution to every problem we are not trying to solve." [sql-troubles]

"Finding problems is easier than finding solutions." [sql-troubles]

"One stumbles upon the same problen twice." [sql-troubles]

"There is no mechanical problem so difficult that it cannot be solved by brute strength and ignorance. [William's Law]

"There's no software problem so difficult that can't be solved by brute force and ignorance." [sql-troubles]

"There's always one more bug." (Lubarsky's law of cybernetic entomology)

"Software solutions diverge to a set of bugs." [sql-troubles

"Things get worse under pressure." [Murphy's law of thermodynamics]

"Things get worse also without pressure." [sql-troubles]

"Things go right gradually, but things go wrong all at once." (Murphy's asymmetry principle)

"Tolerances will accumulate unidirectionally toward maximum difficulty of assembly. (Klipstein's law)

"Two wrongs are only the beginning." (Kohn's corollary to Murphy's law)

"One wrong can be the beginning of another." [sql-troubles]

"When all else fails, read the instructions." [Cahn's axiom]

"Even if you read the instructions, things fall." [sql-troubles]

"When an error has been detected and corrected, it will be found to have been correct in the first place." [Scott's second law]

"Any two related problems may look the same when regarded from same perspective." [sql-troubles]

"When in doubt, use a bigger hammer." [Dobbins’ Law]

"When taking something apart to fix a minor malfunction, you will cause a major malfunction." (Murphy's second law of construction)

"Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first." (Murphy's sixth corollary)

"While the difficulties and dangers of problems tend to increase at a geometric rate, the knowledge and manpower qualified to deal with these problems tend to increase linearly." [Dror's First Law]

"Beyond a point, the problems are so complex that people can't differentiate between geometric and linear rates." [sql-troubles]

 Previous Post <<||>> Next Post

21 February 2025

🧩IT: Idioms, Sayings, Proverbs and Other Words of Wisdom

In IT setups one can hear many idioms, sayings and other type of words of wisdom that make the audience smile, even if some words seem to rub salt in the wounds. These are some of the idioms met in IT meetings or literature. Frankly, it's worth to write more about each of them, and this it the purpose of the "project". 

"A bad excuse is better than none"

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush": a working solution is worth more than hypothetically better solutions. 

"A drowning man will clutch at a straw": a drowning organization will clutch to the latest hope

"A friend in need (is a friend indeed)": 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

"A little learning is a dangerous thing"

"A nail keeps a shoe, a shoe a horse, a horse a man, a man a castle" (cca 1610): A nail keeps the shoe

"A picture is worth a thousand words"

"A stitch in time (saves nine)"

"Actions speak louder than words"

"All good things must come to an end"

"All generalizations are false" [attributed to Mark Twain, Alexandre Dumas (Père)]: Cutting though Complexity

"All the world's a stage, And all [...] merely players": A look forward

"All roads lead to Rome"

"All is well that ends well"

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

"Another day, another dollar"

"As you sow so shall you reap"

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

"Better late than never": SQL Server and Excel Data

"Better safe than sorry": Deleting obsolete companies

"Big fish eat little fish"

"Better the Devil you know (than the Devil you do not)": 

"Calm seas never made a good sailor"

"Count your blessings"

"Dead men tell no tales"

"Do not bite the hand that feeds you"

"Do not change horses in midstream"

"Do not count your chickens before they are hatched"

"Do not cross the bridge till you come to it"

"Do not judge a book by its cover"

"Do not meet troubles half-way"

"Do not put all your eggs in one basket"

"Do not put the cart before the horse"

"Do not try to rush things; ignore matters of minor advantage" (Confucius): A tale of two cities II

"Do not try to walk before you can crawl"

"Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom"

"Easier said than done"

"Every cloud has a silver lining"

"Every little bit helps"

"Every picture tells a story"

"Failing to plan is planning to fail"Planning correctly misunderstood...

"Faith will move mountains"

"Fake it till you make it"

"Fight fire with fire"

"First impressions are the most lasting"

"First things first": Ways of looking at data

"Fish always rots from the head downwards"

"Fools rush in (where angels fear to tread)" (Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Criticism", cca. 1711): A tale of two cities II

"Half a loaf is better than no bread"

"Haste makes waste"

"History repeats itself"

"Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst"

"If anything can go wrong, it will" (Murphy's law)

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it.": Approaching a query

"If you play with fire, you will get burned"

"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself"

"Ignorance is bliss"

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

"It ain't over till/until it's over"

"It is a small world"

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness"

"It is never too late": A look backAll-knowing developers are back...

"It's a bad plan that admits of no modification." (Publilius Syrus)Planning Correctly Misunderstood I

"It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong." (Yvon Chouinard)Documentation - Lessons learned

"It is not enough to learn how to ride, you must also learn how to fall"

"It takes a whole village to raise a child"

"It will come back and haunt you"

"Judge not, that ye be not judged"

"Kill two birds with one stone"

"Knowledge is power, guard it well"

"Learn a language, and you will avoid a war" (Arab proverb)

"Less is more"

"Life is what you make it"

"Many hands make light work"

"Moderation in all things"

"Money talks"

"More haste, less speed"

"Necessity is the mother of invention"

"Never judge a book by its cover"

"Never say never"

"Never too old to learn"

"No man can serve two masters"

"No pain, no gain"

"No plan ever survived contact with the enemy.' (Carl von Clausewitz)Planning Correctly Misunderstood I

"Oil and water do not mix"

"One-man show": series

"One man's trash is another man's treasure"

"One swallow does not make a summer"

"Only time will tell": The Software Quality Perspective and AI, Microsoft FabricIt’s all about Partnership IIAccess vs. LightSwitch

"Patience is a virtue"

"Poke the bear": Mea Culpa - A Look Forward

"Practice makes perfect"

"Practice what you preach"

"Prevention is better than cure"

"Rules were made to be broken"

"Seek and ye shall find"

"Some are more equal than others" (George Orwell, "Animal Farm")

"Spoken words fly away, written words remain." ["Verba volant, scripta manent"]: Documentation - Lessons learned

"Strike while the iron is hot"

"Technology is dead": Dashboards Are Dead & Other Crapprogramming is dead

"The best defense is a good offense"

"The bets are off":  A look forward

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall"

"The devil is in the detail": Copilot Stories Part IV, Cutting through ComplexityMore on SQL DatabasesThe Analytics MarathonThe Choice of Tools in PM, Who Messed with My Data?

"The die is cast"

"The exception which proves the rule"

"The longest journey starts with a single step"

"The pursuit of perfection is a fool's errand"

"There are two sides to every question"

"There is no smoke without fire"

"There's more than one way to skin a cat" (cca. 1600s)

"There is no I in team"

"There is safety in numbers"

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" (George Santayana)

"Time is money"

"To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world" (Chinese proverb)[5

"Too little, too late"

"Too much of a good thing"

"Truth is stranger than fiction"

"Two birds with one stone": Deleting sequential data...

"Two heads are better than one": Pair programming

"Two wrongs (do not) make a right"

"United we stand, divided we fall"

"Use it or lose it"

"Unity is strength"

"Variety is the spice of life." (William Cowper)

"Virtue is its own reward"

"Well begun is half done"

"What does not kill me makes me stronger"

"Well done is better than well said"

"What cannot be cured must be endured"

"What goes around, comes around"

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"

"When the cat is away, the mice will play"

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going"

"Where there is a will there is a way"

"With great power comes great responsibility"

"Work expands so as to fill the time available"

"You are never too old to learn": All-Knowing Developers are Back in Demand?

"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink"

"You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs"

"(You cannot) teach an old dog new tricks"

"You must believe and not doubt at all": Believe and not doubt

"Zeal without knowledge is fire without light"

Previous Post <<||>> Next Post

References:
[1] Wikipedia (2024) List of proverbial phrases [link]

12 March 2024

🕸Systems Engineering: A Play of Problems (Much Ado about Nothing)

Disclaimer: This post was created just for fun. No problem was hurt or solved in the process! 
Updated: 12-Jun-2024

On Problems

Everybody has at least a problem. If somebody doesn’t have a problem, he’ll make one. If somebody can't make a problem, he can always find a problem. One doesn't need to search long for finding a problem. Looking for a problem one sees more problems. 

Not having a problem can easily become a problem. It’s better to have a problem than none. The none problem is undefinable, which makes it a problem. 

Avoiding a problem might lead you to another problem. Some problems are so old, that's easier to ignore them. 

In every big problem there’s a small problem trying to come out. Most problems can be reduced to smaller problems. A small problem may hide a bigger problem. 

It’s better to solve a problem when is still small, however problems can be perceived only when they grow bigger (big enough). 

In the neighborhood of a problem there’s another problem getting closer. Problems tend to attract each other. 

Between two problems there’s enough place for a third to appear. The shortest path between two problems is another problem. 

Two problems that appear together in successive situations might be the parts of the same problem. 

A problem is more than the sum of its parts.

Any problem can be simplified to the degree that it becomes another problem. 

The complementary of a problem is another problem. At the intersection/reunion of two problems lies another problem.

The inverse of a problem is another problem more complex than the initial problem.

Defining a problem correctly is another problem. A known problem doesn’t make one problem less. 

When a problem seems to be enough, a second appears. A problem never comes alone.  The interplay of the two problems creates a third.

Sharing the problems with somebody else just multiplies the number of problems. 

Problems multiply beyond necessity. Problems multiply beyond our expectations. Problems multiply faster than we can solve them. 

Having more than one problem is for many already too much. Between many big problems and an infinity of problems there seem to be no big difference. 

Many small problems can converge toward a bigger problem. Many small problems can also diverge toward two bigger problems. 

When neighboring problems exist, people tend to isolate them. Isolated problems tend to find other ways to surprise.

Several problems aggregate and create bigger problems that tend to suck within the neighboring problems.

If one waits long enough some problems will solve themselves or it will get bigger. Bigger problems exceed one's area of responsibility. 

One can get credit for a self-created problem. It takes only a good problem to become famous.

A good problem can provide a lifetime. A good problem has the tendency to kick back where it hurts the most. One can fall in love with a good problem. 

One should not theorize before one has a (good) problem. A problem can lead to a new theory, while a theory brings with it many more problems. 

If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem will look like a nail. (paraphrasing Abraham H Maslow)

Any field of knowledge can be covered by a set of problems. A field of knowledge should be learned by the problems it poses.

A problem thoroughly understood is always fairly simple, but unfairly complex. (paraphrasing Charles F Kettering)

The problem solver created usually the problem. 

Problem Solving

Break a problem in two to solve it easier. Finding how to break a problem is already another problem. Deconstructing a problem to its parts is no guarantee for solving the problem.

Every problem has at least two solutions from which at least one is wrong. It’s easier to solve the wrong problem. 

It’s easier to solve a problem if one knows the solution already. Knowing a solution is not a guarantee for solving the problem.

Sometimes a problem disappears faster than one can find a solution. 

If a problem has two solutions, more likely a third solution exists. 

Solutions can be used to generate problems. The design of a problem seldom lies in its solutions. 

The solution of a problem can create at least one more problem. 

One can solve only one problem at a time. 

Unsolvable problems lead to problematic approximations. There's always a better approximation, one just needs to find it. One needs to be o know when to stop searching for an approximation. 

There's not only a single way for solving a problem. Finding another way for solving a problem provides more insight into the problem. More insight complicates the problem unnecessarily. 

Solving a problem is a matter of perspective. Finding the right perspective is another problem.

Solving a problem is a matter of tools. Searching for the right tool can be a laborious process. 

Solving a problem requires a higher level of consciousness than the level that created it. (see Einstein) With the increase complexity of the problems one an run out of consciousness.

Trying to solve an old problem creates resistance against its solution(s). 

The premature optimization of a problem is the root of all evil. (paraphrasing Donald Knuth)

A great discovery solves a great problem but creates a few others on its way. (paraphrasing George Polya)

Solving the symptoms of a problem can prove more difficult that solving the problem itself.

A master is a person who knows the solutions to his problems. To learn the solutions to others' problems he needs a pupil. 

"The final test of a theory is its capacity to solve the problems which originated it." (George Dantzig) It's easier to theorize if one has a set of problems.

A problem is defined as a gap between where you are and where you want to be, though nobody knows exactly where he is or wants to be.

Complex problems are the problems that persist - so are minor ones.

"The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long." (Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1953) Some people are just lost in rearranging. 

Solving problems is a practical skill, but impractical endeavor. (paraphrasing George Polya) 

"To ask the right question is harder than to answer it." (Georg Cantor) So most people avoid asking the right question.

Solve more problems than you create.

They Said It

"A great many problems do not have accurate answers, but do have approximate answers, from which sensible decisions can be made." (Berkeley's Law)

"A problem is an opportunity to grow, creating more problems. [...] most important problems cannot be solved; they must be outgrown." (Wayne Dyer)

"A system represents someone's solution to a problem. The system doesn't solve the problem." (John Gall, 1975)

"As long as a branch of science offers an abundance of problems, so long is it alive." (David Hilbert)

"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." [Grossman's Misquote]

"Every solution breeds new problems." [Murphy's laws]

"Given any problem containing n equations, there will be n+1 unknowns." [Snafu]

"I have not seen any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated." (Paul Anderson)

"If a problem causes many meetings, the meetings eventually become more important than the problem." (Hendrickson’s Law)

"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we’ve solved it." (Arthur Kasspe) [Epstein’s Law]

"Inventing is easy for staff outfits. Stating a problem is much harder. Instead of stating problems, people like to pass out half- accurate statements together with half-available solutions which they can't finish and which they want you to finish." [Katz's Maxims]

"It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than to do the wrong problem the right way." (Richard Hamming)

"Most problems have either many answers or no answer. Only a few problems have a single answer." [Berkeley's Law]

"Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back." (Piet Hein)

Rule of Accuracy: "When working toward the solution of a problem, it always helps if you know the answer."
Corollary: "Provided, of course, that you know there is a problem."

"Some problems are just too complicated for rational logical solutions. They admit of insights, not answers." (Jerome B Wiesner, 1963)

"Sometimes, where a complex problem can be illuminated by many tools, one can be forgiven for applying the one he knows best." [Screwdriver Syndrome]

"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it." (Brendan Francis)

"The chief cause of problems is solutions." [Sevareid's Law]

"The first step of problem solving is to understand the existing conditions." (Kaoru Ishikawa)

"The human race never solves any of its problems, it only outlives them." (David Gerrold)

"The most fruitful research grows out of practical problems."  (Ralph B Peck)

"The problem-solving process will always break down at the point at which it is possible to determine who caused the problem." [Fyffe's Axiom]

"The worst thing you can do to a problem is solve it completely." (Daniel Kleitman)

"The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists." (Isaac Asimov)

"The solution to a problem changes the problem." [Peers's Law]

"There is a solution to every problem; the only difficulty is finding it." [Evvie Nef's Law]

"There is no mechanical problem so difficult that it cannot be solved by brute strength and ignorance. [William's Law]

"Today's problems come from yesterday’s 'solutions'." (Peter M Senge, 1990)

"While the difficulties and dangers of problems tend to increase at a geometric rate, the knowledge and manpower qualified to deal with these problems tend to increase linearly." [Dror's First Law]

"You are never sure whether or not a problem is good unless you actually solve it." (Mikhail Gromov)

Previous Post <<||>> Next Post

More quotes on Problem solving at QuotableMath.blogpost.com

Resources:
Murphy's laws and corollaries (link)

03 January 2021

🤝Governance: Responsibility (Just the Quotes)

"Weak character coupled with honored place, meager knowledge with large plans, limited powers with heavy responsibility, will seldom escape disaster." ("I Ching" ["Book of Changes"], cca. 600 BC)

"The only way for a large organization to function is to decentralize, to delegate real authority and responsibility to the man on the job. But be certain you have the right man on the job." (Robert E Wood, 1951)

"[...] authority - the right by which superiors are able to require conformity of subordinates to decisions - is the basis for responsibility and the force that binds organization together. The process of organizing encompasses grouping of activities for purposes of management and specification of authority relationships between superiors and subordinates and horizontally between managers. Consequently, authority and responsibility relationships come into being in all associative undertakings where the superior-subordinate link exists. It is these relationships that create the basic character of the managerial job." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"[...] authority for given tasks is limited to that for which an individual may properly held responsible." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"If charts do not reflect actual organization and if the organization is intended to be as charted, it is the job of effective management to see that actual organization conforms with that desired. Organization charts cannot supplant good organizing, nor can a chart take the place of spelling out authority relationships clearly and completely, of outlining duties of managers and their subordinates, and of defining responsibilities." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"Responsibility cannot be delegated. While a manager may delegate to a subordinate authority to accomplish a service and the subordinate in turn delegate a portion of the authority received, none of these superiors delegates any of his responsibility. Responsibility, being an obligation to perform, is owed to one's superior, and no subordinate reduces his responsibility by assigning the duty to another. Authority may be delegated, but responsibility is created by the subordinate's acceptance of his assignment." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"Viewed internally with respect to the enterprise, responsibility may be defined as the obligation of a subordinate, to whom a superior has assigned a duty, to perform the service required. The essence of responsibility is, then, obligation. It has no meaning except as it is applied to a person." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"You can delegate authority, but you can never delegate responsibility by delegating a task to someone else. If you picked the right man, fine, but if you picked the wrong man, the responsibility is yours - not his." (Richard E Krafve, The Boston Sunday Globe, 1960)

"Modern organization makes demands on the individual to learn something he has never been able to do before: to use organization intelligently, purposefully, deliberately, responsibly [...] to manage organization [...] to make [...] his job in it serve his ends, his values, his desire to achieve." (Peter F Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity, 1968)

"[Management by objectives is] a process whereby the superior and the subordinate managers of an enterprise jointly identify its common goals, define each individual's major areas of responsibility in terms of the results expected of him, and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution of each of its members." (Robert House, "Administrative Science Quarterly", 1971)

"'Management' means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folkways and superstition, and of cooperation for force. It means the substitution of responsibility for obedience to rank, and of authority of performance for authority of rank. (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"[...] the first criterion in identifying those people within an organization who have management responsibility is not command over people. It is responsibility for contribution. Function rather than power has to be the distinctive criterion and the organizing principle." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager." (Peter F Drucker, "Management in Turbulent Times", 1980)

"By assuming sole responsibility for their departments, managers produce the very narrowness and self-interest they deplore in subordinates. When subordinates are relegated to their narrow specialties, they tend to promote their own practical interests, which then forces other subordinates into counter-advocacy. The manager is thereby thrust into the roles of arbitrator, judge, and referee. Not only do priorities become distorted, but decisions become loaded with win/lose dynamics. So, try as the manager might, decisions inevitably lead to disgruntlement and plotting for the next battle." (David L Bradford & Allan R Cohen, "Managing for Excellence", 1984)

"The man who delegates responsibilities for running the company, without knowing the intimate details of what is involved, runs the enormous risk of rendering himself superfluous." (Harold Geneen, "Managing", 1984)

"Leadership is the total effect you have on the people and events around you. This effect is your influence. Effective leading is being consciously responsible for your organizational influence. [...] The essence of leadership is knowing that YOU CAN NEVER NOT LEAD. You lead by acts of commission and acts of omission." (Kenneth Schatz & Linda Schatz, "Managing by Influence", 1986)

"Looking for differences between the more productive and less productive organizations, we found that the most striking difference is the number of people who are involved and feel responsibility for solving problems." (Michael McTague, "Personnel Journal", 1986)

"Management has a responsibility to explain to the employee how the routine job contributes to the business's objectives. If management cannot explain the value of the job, then it should be eliminated and the employee reassigned." (Douglas M Reid, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"A systematic effort must be made to emphasize the group instead of the individual. [...] Group goals and responsibilities can usually overcome any negative reactions to the individual and enforce a standard of cooperation that is attainable by persuasion or exhortation." (Eugene Raudsepp, MTS Digest, 1987)

"An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility." (Jan Carlzon, "Moments of Truth", 1987)

"Executives have to start understanding that they have certain legal and ethical responsibilities for information under their control." (Jim Leeke, PC Week, 1987)

"If responsibility - and particularly accountability - is most obviously upwards, moral responsibility also reaches downwards. The commander has a responsibility to those whom he commands. To forget this is to vitiate personal integrity and the ethical validity of the system." (Roger L Shinn, "Military Ethics", 1987)

[...] quality assurance is the job of the managers responsible for the product. A separate group can't 'assure' much if the responsible managers have not done their jobs properly. [...] Managers should be held responsible for quality and not allowed to slough off part of their responsibility to a group whose name sounds right but which cannot be guaranteed quality if the responsible managers have not been able to do so." (Philip W. Metzger, "Managing Programming People", 1987)

"Responsibility is a unique concept [...] You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. [...] If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible." (Hyman G Rickover, "The Rickover Effect", 1992)

"If you treat people as though they are responsible, they tend to behave that way." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"You can’t delegate responsibility without giving a person authority commensurate with it." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"What do people do today when they don’t understand 'the system'? They try to assign responsibility to someone to fix the problem, to oversee 'the system', to coordinate and control what is happening. It is time we recognized that 'the system' is how we work together. When we don’t work together effectively putting someone in charge by its very nature often makes things worse, rather than better, because no one person can understand 'the system' well enough to be responsible. We need to learn how to improve the way we work together, to improve 'the system' without putting someone in charge, in order to make things work." (Yaneer Bar-Yam, "Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World", 2004)

"In order to cultivate a culture of accountability, first it is essential to assign it clearly. People ought to clearly know what they are accountable for before they can be held to it. This goes beyond assigning key responsibility areas (KRAs). To be accountable for an outcome, we need authority for making decisions, not just responsibility for execution. It is tempting to refrain from the tricky exercise of explicitly assigning accountability. Executives often hope that their reports will figure it out. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Any software project must have a technical leader, who is responsible for all technical decisions made by the team and have enough authority to make them. Responsibility and authority are two mandatory components that must be present in order to make it possible to call such a person an architect." (Yegor Bugayenko, "Code Ahead", 2018)

"Responsibility means an inevitable punishment for mistakes; authority means full power to make them." (Yegor Bugayenko, "Code Ahead", 2018)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

About Me

My photo
Koeln, NRW, Germany
IT Professional with more than 25 years experience in IT in the area of full life-cycle of Web/Desktop/Database Applications Development, Software Engineering, Consultancy, Data Management, Data Quality, Data Migrations, Reporting, ERP implementations & support, Team/Project/IT Management, etc.