It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people make instead of thinking. (NW)
One of the hardest lessons of young Sam’s life had been finding out that the people in charge weren’t in charge.
It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people make instead of thinking. (NW)
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'A good plan isn’t one where someone wins, it’s where nobody thinks they’ve lost.' (AM)
'Some people just become stupid with more authority.' (TOT)
... it is possible, after a while, to develop certain dangerous habits of thought. One is that, while all important enterprises need careful organization, it is the organization that needs organizing, rather than the enterprise. And the other is that tranquility is always a good thing. (TOT)
Ponder had invented a little system he’d called, in the privacy of his head, Lies-to-Wizards. It was for their own good, he told himself. There was no point in telling your bosses everything; they were busy men, they didn’t want explanations. There was no point in burdening them. What they wanted was little stories that they felt they could understand, and then they’d go away and stop worrying. (SODW)
'You know I’ve always wanted a paperless office-'
'Yes, Archchancellor, that’s why you hide it all in the cupboards and throw it out the window at night.' (LC) 'Be what?’
‘Pro-active, I think. It’s a word he’s using a lot.’ ‘What does that mean?’ ‘Well…in favour of activity, I suppose.’ ‘Really? Dangerous. In my experience, inactivity sees you through.' (LC) After all, you couldn’t plan for every eventuality, because that would involve knowing what was going to happen, and if
you knew what was going to happen, you could probably see to it that it didn’t, or at least happened to someone else. So the Patrician never planned. Plans often got in the way. (J) Ridcully assumed that anything people had time to write down couldn’t be important. (IT)
'Round everyone up. My study. Ten minutes,’ said Ridcully. He was a great believer in this approach. A less direct Archchancellor would have wandered around looking for everyone. His policy was to find one person and make their
life difficult until everything happened the way he wanted it to.* *A policy adopted by almost all managers and several notable gods. (IT) Lord Vetinari was sitting in the palace gardens watching the butterflies with an expression of mild annoyance. He found something very slightly offensive about the way they just fluttered around enjoying themselves in an unprofitable way. (IT)
The Patrician was a pragmatist. He’d never tried to fix things that worked. Things that didn’t work, however, got broken. (SM)
And Mustrum Ridcully, the current Archchancellor, liked to wander around the sleepy buildings, nodding to the servants and leaving little notes for his subordinates, usually designed for no other purpose than to make it absolutely clear that he was up and attending to the business of the day while they were still fast asleep. (LL)
'Take it from me, whenever you see a bunch of buggers puttering around talking about truth and beauty and the best way of attacking Ethics, you can bet your sandals it’s all because dozens of other poor buggers are doing all the real work around the place…' (SG)
It takes forty men with their feet on the ground to keep one man with his head in the air. (SG)
The people who really run organisations are usually found several levels down, where it’s still possible to get things done. (SG)
Victor had never worked for anything in his life. In his experience, jobs were things that happened to other people. (MP)
There were some things on which even they were united. No more policy statements, no more consultative documents, no more morale-boosting messages to all staff. This was Hell, but you had to draw the line somewhere. (E)
'But you don’t have to go! I need you!’
‘You’ve got advisers,’ said Teppic mildly. ‘I didn’t mean that,’ she snapped. ‘Anyway, there’s only Koomi, and he’s no good.’ ‘You’re lucky. I had Dios, and he was good. Koomi will be much better, you can learn a lot by not listening to what he has to say. You can go a long way with incompetent advisers.' (P) Besides, there was something disquieting about young Trymon. He didn’t smoke, only drank boiled water, and Galder had a nasty suspicion that he was clever. He didn’t smile often enough, and he liked figures and the sort of organisation charts that show lots of squares with arrows pointing to other squares. In short, he was the sort of man who could use the word ‘personnel’ and mean it. (LF)
'Necromancy is a Fine Art?’ said Moist.
‘None finer, young man. Get things just a tiny bit wrong and the spirits of the vengeful dead may enter your head via your ears and blow your brains out down your nose.' (MM) Hexperiment: to use magic just to see what happens. (W)
... being turned in to something small and sticky often offends. (W)
It wasn’t a spell, except in her own head, but if you couldn’t make spells work in your own head you couldn’t make them work at all. (W)
'... that’s why I don’t like magic, captain. ’Cos it’s magic. You can’t ask questions, it’s magic. It doesn’t explain
anything, it’s magic. You don’t know where it comes from, it’s magic! That’s what I don’t like about magic, it does everything by magic!' (Th) |
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