Aristotle

Principles are our summary of their public statements.

• Wait for a consistent worldview

  Focus

  Do not rush to publish or record ideas until they have matured into a consistent and definitive view of the subject.

  Source Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals  (opens in a new tab)

• Intellectual Pursuit as Ultimate End

  Mindset

  The contemplative and intellectual life should be viewed as the end and consummation of practical activities.

  Source Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals  (opens in a new tab)

• Avoid External Fixes

  Strategy

  Solutions to problems should arise naturally from the internal logic of the situation rather than through artificial external interventions.

  Supporting quotes

  • “The fourth point is consistency: for though the subject of the imitation, who suggested the type, be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Use Metaphor for Innovation

  Content

  Apply names from one category to another to explain new concepts or create memorable analogies for customers.

  Supporting quotes

  • “The perfection of style is to be clear without being mean.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Measure Success by End Goals

  Strategy

  The quality of a work is determined by how perfectly it attains its intended end compared to its alternatives.

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

  Source The Poetics of Aristotle  (opens in a new tab)

• Avoid degree variation in definitions

  Product

  Recognize that a fundamental quantity or category either is or is not; it does not exist in degrees of being itself.

  Supporting quotes

  • “Quantity is either discrete or continuous. Moreover, some quantities are such that each part of the whole has a relative position to the other parts: others have within them no such relation of part to part.”

    “It is because we have in mind some one of these quantities, properly so called, that we apply quantitative terms to other things.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Identify Irreversible Dependencies

  Strategy

  Prioritize tasks or elements that are foundational, where the existence of the second necessarily implies the prior existence of the first.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source The Categories  (opens in a new tab)