“No one would say, 'Hey, I think this medicine works, go ahead and use ...” — Sendhil Mullainathan Quote

“No one would say, 'Hey, I think this medicine works, go ahead and use it.' We have testing, we go to the lab, we try it again, we have refinement. But you know what we do on the last mile? 'Oh, this is a good idea. People will like this. Let's put it out there.'”

“Time can be dissected easily: an hour can be cut up in many ways. Fifteen minutes on this memo, a five-minute walk to another meeting, 30 minutes at that meeting and then 10 minutes debriefing. Oh, and maybe a quick phone call on the walk to that meeting. The busy are expert at dissection: that's how they make it all fit.”

“I'm used to being surrounded by really smart 22-year-old students who have no problem saying that something I suggested is not a very good idea.”

“Sex in space is not just a good idea, it's survival.”

“I have multiple ideas per day, all the time. The vast majority of these are completely idiotic. Usually, I just sit on the idea for several months. And if I have not decided that it's idiotic, then it's... might be a good idea.”