11 Quotes by Randy Olson

There are two meanings to the word dodo. The first one is a stupid person. The other is a species that was driven to extinction.

Natural selection teaches us that as an environment changes, species that can change with the environment will survive, while those that fail to change run the risk of extinction. Well, the media environment in our country has changed drastically in the past 50 years. Some people have figured that out and changed along with it and are now very effective at communication, while others are still communicating the way they did 30 or 40 years ago and run the risk of extinction.

There isn't much to intelligent design. These guys have this really deep-seated intuition that they can look at nature and see a designer at work, but the problem is they've failed to advance it to any kind of science so far.

It's a great economic tool for our district. It's bringing $144 million worth of construction.

It is trying to take a serious look at this issue, why it's come up and why it is so polarizing.

I've heard about $750,000 goes to Mill Race Crossing and about $100,000 to the city, plus there a few other grants that I don't know about.

Rule of Replacing.” He says, “I sort of always call it the rule of replacing ‘ands’ with either ‘buts’ or ‘therefores,’ and so it’s always like ‘this happens’ and then this happens and then this happens – whenever I can go back in the writing and change that to – this happens, therefore this happens, but this happens – whenever you can replace your ‘ands’ with ‘buts’ or ‘therefores,’ it makes for better writing.

Popular writers like to tell big stories. Scientists like to tell the truth.

Keith Johnstone, author of the seminal improv work Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, offers a brilliant quote on the subject: “There are people who prefer to say ‘Yes,’ and there are people who prefer to say ‘No.’ Those who say ‘Yes’ are rewarded by the adventures they have, and those who say ‘No’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.” Will you attain your message objectives by playing it safe?