Norman Ralph Augustine

“The last 10 percent of performance generates one-third of the cost and two-thirds of the problems.”

“One-tenth of the participants produce over one-third of the output. Increasing the number of participants merely reduces the average output.”

“Regulation is the substitution of error for chance.”

“If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.”

“Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics; i.e., it always increases.”

“Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.”

“Fools rush in where incumbents fear to tread.”

“Ninety percent of the time, things will turn out worse than you expect. The other 10 percent of the time, you had no right to expect so much.”

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”