Friends, if it matters to you, I think it is less important that we agree and more important that we learn to disagree with respect. Let's not expect to agree and get frustrated when it doesn't happen. Let's strive to hear each other out while bringing out the best in ourselves and others. I know it's difficult because I feel it everyday. But I also know it'll be good for us as individuals, for the organization, and the country. I invite you to strive with me and help shift our culture.
A swarm finds the solution people best agree upon. It optimizes collective support, whereas a poll tells us how we disagree.
There's no such thing as values in Sharia law, that is what I was trying to explain, it's understood in thousands of different ways by tens of thousands of different institutions, who really disagree with each other far more than they disagree with people of other religions.
A brute force solution that works is better than an elegant solution that doesn't work.
You have to have the will not to jump at the first solution, because the really elegant solution might be right around the corner.
When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don't really understand the complexity of the problem. Then you get into the problem, and you see that it's really complicated, and you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That's sort of the middle, and that's where most people stop... But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem - and come up with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works.
There is nothing more American than acknowledging that even if we don't agree politically, even if we don't agree with the president, even if we don't like each other, all of us have the same rights.
We need an international solution to the challenge of climate change, there's no question about it. But the real key is, can you actually get that - or get that solution - without the US' involvement? Can you not lead domestically, and expect the rest of the world will take action... the US needs to lead, we need to be out there.
My mother-in-law and I have really worked on our relationship. It did not happen out of the blue. What works for us is that both of us are very strong women, we walk the line and come to a meeting point. We do not necessarily agree on everything but the one thing we agree on is the fact that we love each other and our intentions are right.
Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.
Negotiating in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.
I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning.
To solve a marriage problem, you have to talk with each other about it, choosing wisely the time and place. But when accusations and lengthy speeches of defense fill the dialogue, the partners are not talking to each other but past each other. Take care to listen more than you speak. If you still can't agree on a solution, consider asking a third party, without a vested interest, to mediate.
If you look at other countries, you see they have different values: defend more, pass the ball out more, winning is holy. In England, you could say that sport itself is holy. They say, 'Look, guys, it's about more than just winning.'
Remember, if you want to love your life and live it to the fullest, don't let the sun go down on your anger. If you don't have a solution to the issue, agree to disagree and focus on the importance of the relationship.
The wisdom of the chess player is displayed more in winning over a capable opponent than a novice. The wisdom of the general is displayed more in defeating a superior army than in subduing an inferior one. Even more so, the wisdom of God is displayed when He brings good to us and glory to Himself out of confusion and calamity rather than out of pleasant times.