paradox

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From Implementing Lean Software Development
The paradox is that in our zeal to improve the predictability of software development, we have institutionalized practices that have had the opposite effect. We create a plan, and then we act on that plan as if it embodies an accurate prediction of the future.

From Slack
When the new automation is in place, there is less total work to be done by the human worker, but what work is left is harder. That is the paradox of automation: It makes the work harder, not easier.

From Peopleware
The paradox of the CMM is that process improvement is good, but process improvement programs aren't, or at least they often aren't.

From The Lean Startup
The paradoxical Toyota proverb "Stop production so production never had to stop."

From Experiential Learning 3: Simulation
Paradoxically, realism often interferes directly with learning from a simulation.

From Free
Paradoxes are the opposite of contradictions. Contradictions shut themselves down, but paradoxes keep themselves going, because every time you acknowledge the truth of one side you're going to get caught from behind by the truth on the other side.

From The Road Less Travelled and Beyond
If a concept is paradoxical, that in itself should suggest that it smacks of integrity and has a ring of truth.

When you get to the root of things, virtually all truth is paradoxical.

From Zen Soup
The words of truth are always paradoxical [Lao Tzu]

From The Aesthetics of Change
A paradox in ecology is that the most flexible species are the dullest. When a flexible species is not controlled by its ecosystem, ecological climax breaks down and a system of weeds remains.

From Management of the Absurd
The real strength of a leader is the ability to elicit the strength of the group. This paradox is another way of saying that leadership is less the property of a person than the property of a group.

From Adapt - Why Success Always Starts With Failure
Cognitive dissonance describes the mind's difficulty in holding two apparently contradictory thoughts simultaneously.

From The Book of Five Rings
The practice of all the arts is for the purpose of clearing away what is on your mind. In the beginning, you do not know anything, so paradoxically you do not have any questions on your mind. Then, when you get into studies, there is something on your mind and you are obstructed by that. This makes everything difficult to do.

From Mastery
Those we know as masters are dedicated to the fundamentals of their calling. They are zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step. At the same time - and here's the paradox - these people, these masters, are precisely the ones who are likely to challenge previous limits.