Leonard Mlodinow Quotes & Sayings

Regression toward the mean. That is, in any series of random events an extraordinary event is most likely to be followed, due purely to chance, by a more ordinary one. — Leonard Mlodinow

Expressive speech, with modulation in pitch and volume, and a minimum of noticeable pauses, boosts credibility and enhances the impression of intelligence. — Leonard Mlodinow

Evolution is among the most well-established theories in the scientific community. To doubt it sounds to biologists as absurd as denying relativity does to physicists. — Leonard Mlodinow

That's why successful people in every field are almost universally members of a certain set - the set of people who don't give up. — Leonard Mlodinow

We all know that looks matter, and modern politicians have always assumed that their battles are decided on both substance and image. — Leonard Mlodinow

Newton was not finally reducible to the criteria by which we comprehend our fellow human beings. — Leonard Mlodinow

I wouldn't have to drop out of academia and take a more lucrative position waiting tables at the faculty club. — Leonard Mlodinow

Of course our feelings matter. But emotional decisions are usually not the best ones. On the other hand, your emotions can affect your decisions whether you like it or not because the effects can occur on the unconscious level. — Leonard Mlodinow

One of the most surprising forms of nonverbal communication is the way we automatically adjust the amount of time we spend looking into another's eyes as a function of our relative social position. — Leonard Mlodinow

I think the fun of following the movie box office and stocks is very similar to the fun of sports - all three combine passion and unpredictability. — Leonard Mlodinow

We have emotions for a reason; for instance, imagine pain. You have pain so that if you touch something that's hot, or if you slam your hand with a hammer, you will pull your hand away and not do that again. — Leonard Mlodinow

The first step in battling the illusion of control is to be aware of if. But even then it is difficult, once we think we see a pattern, we do not easily let go of our perception. — Leonard Mlodinow

Another mistaken notion connected with the law of large numbers is the idea that an event is more or less likely to occur because it has or has not happened recently. The idea that the odds of an event with a fixed probability increase or decrease depending on recent occurrences of the event is called the gambler's fallacy. For example, if Kerrich landed, say, 44 heads in the first 100 tosses, the coin would not develop a bias towards the tails in order to catch up! That's what is at the root of such ideas as "her luck has run out" and "He is due." That does not happen. For what it's worth, a good streak doesn't jinx you, and a bad one, unfortunately , does not mean better luck is in store. — Leonard Mlodinow

That's why doctors instinctively "package" themselves in nice shirts and ties and it's not advisable for attorneys to greet clients in Budweiser T-shirts. In — Leonard Mlodinow

We believe that when we choose anything, judge a stranger and even fall in love, we understand the principal factors that influenced us. Very often nothing could be further from the truth. As a result, many of our most basic assumptions about ourselves, and society, are false. — Leonard Mlodinow

I find that predicting the course of our lives is like predicting the weather. You might be able to predict your future in the short term, but the longer you look ahead, the less likely you are to be correct. — Leonard Mlodinow

In particular, what seems special about humans is our desire and ability to understand what other people think and feel. Called "theory of mind," or "ToM," this ability gives humans a remarkable power to make sense of other people's past behavior and to predict how their behavior will unfold given their present or future circumstances. — Leonard Mlodinow

Intentionality and talent always matter. An extraordinary feat is certainly made more likely by someone's focus, hard work, etc. But chance also matters. — Leonard Mlodinow

Research suggests when it comes to understanding our feelings, we humans have an odd mix of low ability and high confidence. — Leonard Mlodinow

Social connection is such a basic feature of human experience that when we are deprived of it, we suffer. — Leonard Mlodinow

The human sensory system sends the brain about eleven million bits of information each second.9 However, anyone who has ever taken care of a few children who are all trying to talk to you at once can testify that your conscious mind cannot process anywhere near that amount. The actual amount of information we can handle has been estimated to be somewhere between sixteen and fifty bits per second. — Leonard Mlodinow

Upon learning of the young man's interest in a physics book, Lindemann, a number theorist, abruptly ended the interview, saying, In that case you are completely lost to mathematics. — Leonard Mlodinow

Random events often look like nonrandom events, and in interpreting human affairs we must take care not to confuse the two. — Leonard Mlodinow

My father had drawn number 3,004 in a death lottery in which German precision trumped Nazi brutality. — Leonard Mlodinow

You have to have passion for a subject to write about it. You can't expect your readers to feel any excitement if it's nothing but a boring writing exercise for you. — Leonard Mlodinow

The modern concept of the unconscious, based on such studies and measurements, is often called the "new unconscious," to distinguish it from the idea of the unconscious that was popularized by a neurologist-turned-clinician named Sigmund Freud. — Leonard Mlodinow

Einstein had, for the first time connected new and measurable consequences to statistical physics. That might sound like a largely technical achievement, but on the contrary, it represented the triumph of a great principle: that much of the order we percieve in nature belies an invisible underlying disorder and hence can be understood only through the rules of randomness. — Leonard Mlodinow

The attacks on global warming are no different than the attacks the cigarettes companies used to use to say that cigarettes don't cause cancer. — Leonard Mlodinow

first no one knew exactly how to interpret, — Leonard Mlodinow

The truth is that our unconscious minds are active, purposeful, and independent. Hidden they may be, but their effects are anything but, for they play a critical role in shaping the way our conscious minds experience and respond to the world. — Leonard Mlodinow

I've always loved science, as far back as I can remember. I was very, very curious about how everything worked: the world, the physical universe, chemistry, law. So it was only natural to be curious about how our mind works. — Leonard Mlodinow

Our species had to engage in complex cooperative behavior in order to survive in the wild, and - as I keep reminding my teenage children - pointing and grunting get you only so far. — Leonard Mlodinow

One of the things your unconscious mind does for you - and it's a great gift - is it gives you extra courage to view the outer world and it does that by giving you an extra-special view of yourself. — Leonard Mlodinow

We perceive, we remember our experiences, we make judgments, we act - and in all of these endeavors, we are influenced by factors that we aren't aware of. — Leonard Mlodinow

Social rejection doesn't just cause emotional pain; it affects our physical being. — Leonard Mlodinow

if events are random, we are not in control, and if we are in control of events, they are not random. There is therefore a fundamental clash between our need to feel we are in control and our ability to recognize randomness. — Leonard Mlodinow

Politicians often misuse science for political ends and to pursue their own agenda. — Leonard Mlodinow

Another recent work, an academic article that described research on a single type of nerve cell in the hypothalamus, was over one hundred pages long and cited seven hundred intricate experiments. — Leonard Mlodinow

I have stressed this distinction because it is an important one. It defines the fundamental difference between probability and statistics: the former concerns predictions based on fixed probabilities; the latter concerns the inference of those probabilities based on observed data. — Leonard Mlodinow

We unfortunately seem to be unconsciously biased against those in the society who come out on the bottom. — Leonard Mlodinow

In all our perceptions, from vision to hearing, to the pictures we build of people's character, our unconscious mind starts from whatever objective data is available to us - usually spotty - and helps to shape and construct the more complete picture we consciously perceive. — Leonard Mlodinow

Research on hunter-gatherer groups ranging from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries shows that the average nomad worked just two to four hours each day. — Leonard Mlodinow

If a lecture was not interesting or proceeded too slowly or too quickly, they would jeer and become rowdy. — Leonard Mlodinow

Touch is our most highly developed sense when we are born, and it remains a fundamental mode of communication throughout a baby's first year and an important influence throughout a person's life. — Leonard Mlodinow

'Subliminal' is about how we misinterpret our behavior because we're unaware of what our unconscious minds are doing. — Leonard Mlodinow

Nonverbal communication forms a social language that is in many ways richer and more fundamental than our words. — Leonard Mlodinow

By his own assessment, he was no genius. He had "no great quickness of apprehension or wit" or "power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought." On the many occasions when I share those feelings, I find it encouraging to review those words because that Englishman did okay for himself - his name was Charles Darwin. — Leonard Mlodinow

In fact, when some wedding guest inevitably complains about the seating arrangements, you might point out how long it would have taken you to consider every possibility: assuming you spent one second considering each one, it would come to more than half a million years. The unhappy guest will assume, of course, that you are being histrionic. — Leonard Mlodinow

Every aspect of our lives plays out in two versions: one conscious, which we are constantly aware of, and the other unconscious, which remains hidden from us. — Leonard Mlodinow

Well, I have been working on my own theory for twelve years," and then he proceeded to describe it in excruciating detail. When he was finished, Feynman turned to me and said, in front of the man who had just proudly described his work, "That's exactly what I mean about wasting your time. — Leonard Mlodinow

We all know that looks matter. What most of us don't understand is just how much looks matter and how difficult it is for us to ignore a person's appearance when making a social judgment. — Leonard Mlodinow

We judge people and initiatives by their results, and we expect events to happen for good, understandable reason. But our clear visions of inevitability are often only illusions. — Leonard Mlodinow

A pygmy upon a gyants shoulder may see farther than the [giant] himself. — Leonard Mlodinow

French culture is known for many great attributes, some of which probably have nothing to do with food, wine, and romance. — Leonard Mlodinow

Leipzig that the university had to pass a rule against throwing stones at professors. — Leonard Mlodinow

People intuitively realize that there is strength in numbers and take comfort in the company of others, especially in times of anxiety or need. — Leonard Mlodinow

You're wasting your time," he said. "You don't learn how to discover things by reading books on it. And psychology is a bunch of bullshit. — Leonard Mlodinow

By subliminal, I mean things that occur in our world that are below the threshold of consciousness but do have a psychological effect on us. — Leonard Mlodinow

A failure doesn't mean you are unworthy, nor does it preclude success on the next try. — Leonard Mlodinow

On the unconscious level, touch seems to impart a subliminal sense of caring and connection. — Leonard Mlodinow

a thousand years without a bath. — Leonard Mlodinow

Our subliminal mental processes operate outside awareness because they arise in these portions of our mind that are inaccessible to our conscious self; their inaccessibility is due to the architecture of the brain rather than because they have been subject to Freudian motivational forces like repression. — Leonard Mlodinow

The cord that tethers ability to success is both loose and elastic. It is easy to see fine qualities in successful books or to see unpublished manuscripts, inexpensive vodkas, or people struggling in any field as somehow lacking. It is easy to believe that ideas that worked were good ideas, that plans that succeeded were well designed, and that ideas and plans that did not were ill conceived. And it is easy to make heroes out of the most successful and to glance with disdain at the least. But ability does not guarantee achievement, nor is achievement proportional to ability. And so it is important to always keep in mind the other term in the equation - the role of chance ... What I've learned, above all, is to keep marching forward because the best news is that since chance does play a role, one important factor in success is under our control: the number of at bats, the number of chances taken, the number of opportunities seized. — Leonard Mlodinow

They required three thousand Jews, the man said, and the line had apparently held 3,004. — Leonard Mlodinow

Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, writing takes me to another world. — Leonard Mlodinow

probability is the very guide of life — Leonard Mlodinow

Paleontological evidence suggests that the early farmers had more spinal issues, worse teeth, and more anemia and vitamin deficiencies - and died younger - than the populations of human foragers who preceded them. — Leonard Mlodinow

Scientists attach great importance to the human capacity for spoken language. But we also have a parallel track of nonverbal communication, which may reveal more than our carefully chosen words, and sometimes be at odds with them. — Leonard Mlodinow

We unwittingly judge products by their boxes, books by their covers, and even corporation's annual reports by their nice glossy finish. — Leonard Mlodinow

To the voters in 1960, the name Nikita Khrushchev carried great emotional significance. To these students, he sounded like just another hockey player. — Leonard Mlodinow

If memories were indeed like what a camera records, they could be forgotten, or they could fade so that they are no longer clear and vivid. But it would be difficult to explain how people could have memories that are both clear and vivid while also being wrong. Yet that happens, and it is not infrequent. — Leonard Mlodinow

For while anyone can sit back and point to the bottom line as justification, assessing instead a person's actual knowledge and actual ability takes confidence, thought, good judgement, and, well, guts. You can't just stand up in a meeting with your colleagues and yell, "Don't fire her. She was just on the wrong end of a Bernoulli series." Nor is it likely to win you friends if you stand up and say of the gloating fellow who just sold more Toyota Camrys than anyone else in the history of the dealership, "It was just a random fluctuation. — Leonard Mlodinow

The appeal of many conspiracy theories depends on the misunderstanding of this logic. That is, it depends on confusing the probability that a series of events would happen if it were the product of a huge conspiracy with the probability that a huge conspiracy exists if a series of events occurs. — Leonard Mlodinow

If someone were to ask about your taste in fine dining and you were to say, "I lean toward food served with vivid adjectives," you'd probably get a pretty strange look; — Leonard Mlodinow

Language is handy, but we humans have social and emotional connections that transcend words and are communicated - and understood - without conscious thought. — Leonard Mlodinow

Science has revealed a universe that is vast, ancient, violent, strange, and beautiful, a universe of almost infinite variety and possibility one in which time can end in a black hole, and conscious beings can evolve from a soup of minerals. — Leonard Mlodinow

Non-human primates spend hours a day grooming each other. And with humans, touching is also important. It's a way to form bonds and connect in modern society. But you can also speed up the use of conscious purposes once you're aware of that, and it can be manipulated. — Leonard Mlodinow

We should keep in mind that it is easy to concoct stories explaining the past or to become confident about dubious scenarios of the future. We should view both explanations and prophecies with skepticism. — Leonard Mlodinow

My best subjects were chemistry and math. — Leonard Mlodinow

We all understand that genius doesn't guarantee success, but it's seductive to assume that success must come from genius. — Leonard Mlodinow

Listeners instinctively detect that when we lower the usual pitch of our voice, we are sad, and when we raise it, we are angry or fearful. — Leonard Mlodinow

People have a basic desire to feel good about themselves, and we therefore have a tendency to be unconsciously biased in favor of traits similiar to our won, even such seemingly meaningless traits as our names. Scientists have even identified a discrete area of the brain, called the dorsal striatum, as the structure that mediates much of this bias. — Leonard Mlodinow

you want to succeed, double your failure rate." I — Leonard Mlodinow

Paleolithic humans migrated often, and, like my teenagers, they followed the food. — Leonard Mlodinow

I believe there is true expertise in some endeavors, and not in others. There is obviously no such thing as expertise in predicting the results of coin tosses, but there is expertise in predicting the behavior of lasers. — Leonard Mlodinow

Just as our brains fill in the details of an image our eyes record only roughly, so, too, do our brains employ tricks we are unaware of to fill in details about people we don't know intimately. — Leonard Mlodinow

we are highly invested in feeling different from one another - and superior - no matter how flimsy the grounds for our sense of superiority, and no matter how self-sabotaging that may end up being. You — Leonard Mlodinow

Stephen Hawking once told me that there was a sense in which he was glad to be paralyzed, because it allowed him to focus much more intensely on his work. — Leonard Mlodinow

I always liked movies, so I started writing for Hollywood, but my day job was physics. — Leonard Mlodinow

Chemicals were easier to procure than friends, and when I wanted to play with them they never said they had to stay home to wash their hair or, less politely, that they didn't associate with weirdos. — Leonard Mlodinow

One of the ways we interact with other human beings and form social bonds is through touch, and probably most of us are not aware of the extreme importance of touch. — Leonard Mlodinow

People seemed to "decide" how much to eat based on box size as much as taste. — Leonard Mlodinow

When judging a product, we rarely have exhaustive scientific data to go by. As a result, if we are to form a complete picture, we must fill in the blanks, just as we must in our visual perception. — Leonard Mlodinow

The mythical stories we tell about our heroes are always more romantic and often more palatable than the truth. — Leonard Mlodinow

Our inner weighing of evidence is not a careful mathematical calculation resulting in a probabilistic estimate of truth, but more like a whirlpool blending of the objective and the personal. The result is a set of beliefs - both conscious and unconscious - that guide us in interpreting all the events of our lives. — Leonard Mlodinow

Why is the human need to be in control relevant to a discussion of random patterns? Because if events are random, we are not in control, and if we are in control of events, they are not random, there is therefore a fundamental clash between our need to feel we are in control and our ability to recognize randomness. That clash is one of the principal reasons we misinterpret random events. In fact, inducing people to mistake luck for skills, or pointless actions for control, is one of the easiest enterprises a research psychologist can engage in ask people to control flashing lights by pressing a dummy button, and they will believe they are succeeding even though the lights are flashing at random. Show people a circle of lights that flash at random and tell them that by concentrating they can cause the flashing to move in clockwise direction, and they will astonish themselves with their ability to make it happen. — Leonard Mlodinow

One thing that feeds into the way you experience the social world is your mood - and one thing that affects your mood is the weather. — Leonard Mlodinow

The Drunkard's walk: how randomness rules our lives / Leonard Mlodinow. — Leonard Mlodinow

I believe in a kind of God. I think all scientists, in a way, believe in a certain God, in a certain order of nature. — Leonard Mlodinow

Few people would engage in extended activity if they believed that there were a random connection between what they did and the rewards they received,"15 Lerner concluded that "for the sake of their own sanity," people overestimate the degree to which ability can be inferred from success. — Leonard Mlodinow