Gerd Gigerenzer

intuition caprice sixth sense unconscious intelligence

“An intuition is neither caprice nor a sixth sense but a form of unconscious intelligence.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

knowledge antidote fear

“Knowledge is the antidote to fear.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

learn live uncertainty

“We have to learn to live with uncertainty.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

risk uncertainty

“RISK: If risks are known, good decisions require logic and statistical thinking. UNCERTAINTY: If some risks are unknown, good decisions also require intuition and smart rules of thumb.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

committee meeting data decision culprit courage

“Many a committee meeting ends with 'We need more data.' Everybody nods, breathing a sigh of relief, happy that the decision has been deferred. A week or so later, when the data are in, the group is no further ahead. Everyone’s time is wasted on another meeting, on waiting for even more data. The culprit is a negative error culture, in which everyone lacks the courage to make a decision for which they may be punished.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

Einstein's rule less more

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

“Einstein’s rule is a general way to realize that less can be more in an uncertain world.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

absolute risk increase

“Always ask: What is the absolute risk increase?”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

calculation precise uncertain risk illusion certainty

“Because these calculations generate precise numbers for an uncertain risk, they produce an illusory certainty.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

bigger numbers headlines media newspapers

“bigger numbers make better headlines.”

― Gerd Gigerenzer

inumeracy risk uncertainty statistics

"I focus on the most important form of innumeracy in everyday life, statistical innumeracy ― that is, the inability to reason about uncertainties and risk."

― Gerd Gigerenzer

ideas surprise welcome

"Great thinkers often learn, to their surprise, that new ideas are less than welcome."

― Gerd Gigerenzer

cognition information risk error

"Cognition requires going beyond the information given, to make bets and therefore to risk errors."

― Gerd Gigerenzer

learn failing

"Learn by failing, or you fail to learn"

― Gerd Gigerenzer

educator young mind error intelligence creativity innovation

"Educators often think of building young minds that ideally make no errors. This view is an example of a bad error. Intelligence, creativity, and innovation will cease if people are prohibited from making errors"

― Gerd Gigerenzer

media health risk danger

"The more the media reports on health risk, the smaller is the danger for you"

― Gerd Gigerenzer

live uncertainty individual opinion

"In the end, the most important thing is to learn to live with uncertainty and have the courage to form an individual opinion."

— Gerd Gigerenzer

21 century literacy read write learning risk uncertainty

"At the beginning of the twenty-first century, nearly everyone living in an industrial society had been taught reading and writing but not how to understand information about risks and uncertainties in our technological world."

― Gerd Gigerenzer

think err

"I Think, Therefore I Err"

― Gerd Gigerenzer