You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
Charles KetteringRead
Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.
Interpretation
Inventing involves creativity and resourcefulness; using intelligence can reduce the necessity for physical materials.
In this quote, Charles Kettering emphasizes the important relationship between intellect and innovation. He suggests that the more we rely on our cognitive abilities—the 'brains' we utilize—the less we need to depend on physical inputs or materials to create something new. This highlights the power of ideas and creativity in the invention process, implying that innovative thinking is often more valuable than the resources at hand.
In practice
In a speech about innovation at a tech conference.
You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
It is the 'follow through' that makes the great difference between ultimate success and failure, because it is so easy to stop.
When I was research head of General Motors and wanted a problem solved, I'd place a table outside the meeting room with a sign: "Leave slide rules here." If I didn't do that, I'd find someone reaching for his slide rule. Then he'd be on his feet saying, "Boss, you can't do it."
A research problem is not solved by apparatus; it is solved in a man's head.
My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
I often say that research is a way of finding out what you are going to do when you can't keep on doing what you are doing now.
We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.
Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code.
Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.
The telephone will be used to inform people that a telegram has been sent.
It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.
Proprietary software is an injustice.
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