Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Research can only present data about the past. No one seriously believes that people's answers to hypothetical questions about the future accurately represent their future behaviour; they merely represent a current attitude, which may or may not be translated into future behaviour.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Research only provides insights into past behavior, and people's future actions cannot be predicted solely based on their current attitudes.
In this quote, Stephen King emphasizes the limitations of research in predicting future behavior. He argues that while data can reveal patterns from the past, responses to hypothetical questions about future actions are merely reflections of present attitudes and do not necessarily correlate with what individuals will actually do later. This insight highlights the complexity of human behavior and the inadequacy of simplistic predictions based on current sentiments.
Themes
ResearchFutureBehaviorAttitudeData
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the limitations of surveys in forecasting trends, this quote could illustrate the inherent unpredictability of human behavior.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.
Jules VerneRead
Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.
Robert K. MertonRead
This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right.
Michael CrichtonRead
One lesson astronomy tells us is that we're a tiny mote in a hostile void, and help is too far away.
Sandra FaberRead
We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldnt want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.
Stephen HawkingRead
Indeed, the whole human species is endangered, by nuclear weapons or by other means of wholesale destruction which further advances in science are likely to produce.
Joseph RotblatRead