A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. - Herbert Simon

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A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.

Herbert Simon

Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World · 1971 Verified in 1 source Sign up to see the complete provenance

English

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About Herbert Simon

Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American political scientist whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, philosophy of science and sociology and was a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University. With almost a thousand often very highly cited publications he is one of the most influential social scientists of the 20th century.

Also Known As

Native Name: Herbert A. S

Alternative Names: Herbert A. Simon • Herbert Alexander Simon

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Originators like Herbert Simon:

Kenneth Arrow Kenneth E. Boulding C. West Churchman Russell L. Ackoff Charles Perrow

Additional quotes by Herbert Simon

In these two essays [the papers of 1955 and 1956] the focus is upon ways of simplifying the choice problem to bring it within the power of human computation... The key to the simplification of the choice process in both cases is the replacement of the goal of maximizing with the goal of satisficing, of finding a course of action that is ‘good enough’. I have tried, in these two essays, to show why this substitution is an essential step in the application of the principle of bounded rationality.

The fact that goals may be dependent for their force on other more distant ends leads to the arrangement of these goals in a hierarchy - each level to be considered as an end relative to the levels below it and as a mean to the levels above it.

Before we can establish any immutable 'principles' of administration, we must be able to describe, in words, exactly how an administrative organization looks and exactly how it works.