Herbert Simon

Cognitive Science United States 1916 – 2001 65 quotes

American economist and cognitive scientist who won Nobel for decision-making models, noting 'What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients.'

Quotes by Herbert Simon

In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes.

Interview 1995

Organizations are the deliberate arrangements of behavior to achieve desired outcomes.

Book (Administrative Behavior) 1947

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

Speech 1980

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

Article 1960

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Personal reflection 1990

In the long run, the only sustainable competitive advantage is the ability to learn faster than your competitors.

Book 1991

Decision making is the process of choosing among alternative courses of action.

Book (Models of Man) 1957

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

Interview 1978

Bounded rationality is the idea that when faced with complex problems, people use heuristics to find satisfactory solutions.

Book 1957

Science is the generation of reliable knowledge about the world.

Book (The Sciences of the Artificial) 1969

The art of design is bridging the gap between possibility and purpose.

Book 1969

Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.

Letter 1992

Thinking is a process of searching for a solution to a problem.

Book (Models of Thought) 1979

The future is not something we enter; the future is something we create.

Speech 1985

Rationality is the use of knowledge to achieve goals.

Book 1947

In organizations, communication is the glue that holds everything together.

Article 1950

Learning is the adaptation of thought processes to meet the demands of the environment.

Book 1983

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.

Interview 1996

Design is the creation of artifacts to attain goals.

Book 1969

Problems are opportunities in disguise.

Speech 1975