Five Quotes for Mission Information Workers

Five researchers from One Challenge participated in the Mission Information Workers Conference, 23-25 August 2016, in Texas. This gathering was sponsored by the Community of Mission Information Workers (CMIW), the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), Harvest Information System (HIS) and the Seed Company. The program included 14 TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment & Design). A number of the speakers included insightful quotes in their TED Talks. Here are five thought provoking quotes that apply to mission information work.

Let’s start with two quotes attributed to Albert Einstein.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Mediate on the point made by management expert, Peter F. Drucker.

What gets measured, gets managed.

The words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux highlight the motives for seeking knowledge. Some are better than others!

Some seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge: that is curiosity; others seek knowledge that they may themselves be known: that is vanity; but there are still others who seek knowledge in order to serve and edify others, and that is charity.

And here is a final quote by Lord Kelvin, who champions quantitative research.

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.

Do you have any favorite quotes that guide our use of Mission Information? Feel free to share them here.