Remarks of Bill Gates %u2014 The Harvard University Gazette

Remarks of Bill Gates %u2014 The Harvard University Gazette: "Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have %u2014 whether it%u2019s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet."

It just isn't good enough to have a goal. I have lots of goals and most of them are not getting anywhere.

Finding a high-leverage approach is probably more important then we think. I am not going to worry about finding the highest-leverage approach, mainly because that would like to analysis paralysis and besides I probably don't know enough yet to find it an any case. Not to say I am dumb but things change when you start solving a problem.

It is almost Heisenbergian, Once you start doing things the nature of the problem you are trying to solve begins to change and that is unpredictable. In all likelihood the best solution hasn't been created yet but soon will be. That is the way it tends to happen.

Sometimes however it is a little perverse and the solution doesn't appear very easily but that is often because the type of solution I'm pursuing is not optimal and I need to change attack vectors.

Eek, It almost sounds like "The Secret" I am not into the law of attraction stuff but this has happened too often too deny it completely.