A Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

People are storytelling creatures. We like stories that go somewhere, and therefore we like trends - because trends are things that either get better or get worse, so we can either rejoice or lament. But we mistakenly depict many things as trends moving in some direction. We take the "full house" of variation in a system and try to represent it as a single number, when in fact what we should be doing is studying the variation as it expands and contracts. If you look at the history of the variation in all its complexity, then you see there's no trend.

Stephen Jay Gould

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Because Better Complexity Contracts Creatures Depict Direction Doing Either Fact Full Full House Get Get Better Go History House In Fact Lament Like Look Many Moving Moving In Number People Rejoice Represent See Should Single Some Somewhere Stories Storytelling Studying System Take The History Of Then Therefore Things Trend Trends Try Variation Worse

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Stephen Jay Gould
American - Scientist
September 10, 1941 - May 20, 2002

Trends suck you in, anywhere in the world, patterns you don't even see. It's so easy. Look at Wall Street - look at any sports team in the world - there are trends. Look at exercising. Nothing but patterns and trends, and that's what I started to see. Like a flock of birds all flying in one direction.

Grace Potter

I don't at least for me I don't ever really look for trends. I'm looking for just what captures my attention at that time and rarely do I ever look back and try and put together trends or say this kind of trend is important. For me it's about the individual expression and if you go back and look through the archives you might find certain things become trends, but it's just not something that particularly interests me.

Scott Schuman

Sexual reproduction exists solely as a means to defeat parasites. By mixing male and female genes, sex produces offspring not exactly like either the male or female - making each generation different from the last, and presenting a moving target to intruders intent on compromising this system. ... Even with this variation, parasites continue to pose a threat... and parasitism evolves and moves through any system - not just living things. The less variation there is in a system, the more readily parasites will evolve to infest it.

Daniel Suarez

Trends can tyrannize; trends are traps. In any creative industry, the fact that others are moving in a certain direction is always proof positive, at least to me, that a new direction is the only direction.

George Lois

I don't like to follow too many trends because trends tend to make women look like they are wearing uniforms.

Carolina Herrera

What makes me sad in fashion is that everyone is looking for trends. A trend is one thing. Timeless is another. In 20 years, I've seen so many trends. It makes me sad when people go for the trend versus quality or vision. Or when people wear something so basic just to make sure they're considered cool, like a white t-shirt.

Olivier Rousteing

I don't personally follow trends; I don't even like the idea of trends. I think it's kind of absurd that you have to change every six months, so I always try and buy things that hopefully I'll like forever, and resonate with me.

Lily Cole

I would like to tell all dancers to forget themselves and the desire for self display. They must become completely absorbed in the dance. Even in a classical variation there should never be any thought of a dancer doing a variation--he should become identified with it.

Antony Tudor

I make up stories about people who are either imaginary or some variation of myself.

Jami Attenberg

It is hardly useful if you trustingly play through variation after variation from a book. It is a great deal more useful and more interesting if you take part actively in the analysis, find something yourself, and try to refute some of the author's conclusions.

Mark Dvoretsky

I’m not too into the trends - I like to look at trends as suggestions, not as rules.

Bethany Mota

I'm not too into the trends - I like to look at trends as suggestions, not as rules.

Bethany Mota

Being from a place like Chicago you have so much pride in it, there's so many great things that come out of there, but to me not enough people from the city shine a spotlight on the good things that go on with us or the fact that we are innovative and set trends.

Polo G

Most people who try those bizarre trends are looking for magic bullets. There's usually a sexy promise attached to these trends - related to diet or fitness - that many people find too tempting to resist.

Jillian Michaels

I don't like the idea of 'trends' at all. If you follow trends, then everybody looks the same. The best shopping experiences are in local markets, especially in foreign cities.

Leigh Lezark

The Fundamental Regulator Paradox ... The task of a regulator is to eliminate variation, but this variation is the ultimate source of information about the quality of its work. Therefore, the better the job a regulator does the less information it gets about how to improve.

Gerald Weinberg

A Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

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