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(The psuedoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success.)
Jane Jacobs
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Planning should learn from success rather than rigidly adhere to past failures.

This quote by Jane Jacobs critiques the tendency of certain planning practices to obsessively replicate mistakes from the past instead of drawing insights from successful outcomes. It suggests that an effective approach to planning should prioritize empirical evidence of success rather than neurotically focusing on past failures.

Themes

PlanningSuccessFailureEmpiricalNeurotic

In practice

Example use cases

In a workshop on urban development, this quote can be used to inspire participants to focus on successful case studies.

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