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About this quote

What does it mean?
Politics involves complex human dynamics that are inherently harder to predict or manage than physical laws.
In plain terms
Dealing with people and power is harder than dealing with nature.
What can you take from it?
Recognize that human systems often defy the predictability of natural systems.

Where it applies

  • political decision making
  • policy analysis
  • diplomacy

Putting it to work

  • studying political science
  • managing organizations
  • negotiating conflicts

Questions to consider

  • Why is human behavior harder to model than motion?
  • What makes politics unpredictable?

Another view

Physics also faces significant uncertainty and modeling challenges.

More from Albert Einstein

  1. Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.

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  2. Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.

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  3. The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when contemplating the mysteries of et…

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