Dominic Cummings

The reason why Whitehall is full of people failing in predictable ways on an hourly basis is because, first, there is general…

— Dominic Cummings

The audience for facts, evidence and research about microtargeting, Facebook and Brexit is tiny.

— Dominic Cummings

In the commercial world, big companies mostly die within a few decades because they cannot maintain an internal system to keep them…

— Dominic Cummings

Physicists and mathematicians regularly invade other fields but other fields do not invade theirs so we can see which fields are hardest…

— Dominic Cummings

Fundamental to real expertise is 1: whether the informational structure of the environment is sufficiently regular that it's possible to make good…

— Dominic Cummings

The panic over Sputnik brought many good things such as a huge increase in science funding.

— Dominic Cummings

In history books, luck is always underplayed and the talent of individuals is usually overplayed.

— Dominic Cummings

Changing the world in a profound and beneficial way is not enough to put a dint in bureaucracies which operate on their…

— Dominic Cummings

I make judgments about people and ideas individually - for me, parties are just a vehicle of convenience.

— Dominic Cummings

Usually in politics everything is done on hunches.

— Dominic Cummings

Technology enables people to improve communication with unprecedented speed, scale and iterative testing. It also allows people to wreak chaos with high…

— Dominic Cummings

If you want to avoid the usual fate in politics of failure, you need to understand some basic principles about why people…

— Dominic Cummings

It is hard to change people's minds.

— Dominic Cummings

Music is similar to sport. There is very fast feedback, learning, and a clear hierarchy of expertise.

— Dominic Cummings

MPs have no real knowledge of how to function other than via gimmick and briefings.

— Dominic Cummings

Brexit cannot be done with the traditional Westminster/Whitehall system as Vote Leave warned repeatedly before 23 June 2016.

— Dominic Cummings

I want people to understand the barriers to serious government in order that more people take action.

— Dominic Cummings

In healthcare like in government generally, people are incentivised to engage in wasteful/dangerous signalling to a terrifying degree - not rigorous thinking…

— Dominic Cummings

Speed and adaptability are crucial to success in conflict and can be helped by new technologies.

— Dominic Cummings

After 23 June 2016, the U.K. has to reorient national policy on many dimensions.

— Dominic Cummings

People think, and by the way I think most people are right: 'The Tory party is run by people who basically don't…

— Dominic Cummings

The work of mathematicians on 'pure' problems has often yielded ideas that have waited to be rediscovered by physicists. The work of…

— Dominic Cummings

We evolved to make sense of this nonlinear and unpredictable world with stories. These stories are often very powerful.

— Dominic Cummings

Most political operations - and government - don't try to be rigorous about decision-making or force themselves to think about what they…

— Dominic Cummings

Inevitably, the world of 'communications' / PR / advertising / marketing is full of charlatans flogging snake oil. It is therefore very…

— Dominic Cummings