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Sideways thinking [is] the cross classifying habit of mind that comes from learning many different ways to look at things.

— Roger Smith Attributed Roger Smith in: Seyhan N. Ege et al (1997)

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Wikiquote lists this as attributed to Roger Smith, but no primary source has been found.

Source: Roger Smith in: Seyhan N. Ege et al. (1997) "The university of Michigan undergraduate chemistry curriculum 1. philosophy, curriculum, and the nature of change." Journal of Chemical Education, 74(1), p. 75
Work: Roger Smith in: Seyhan N. Ege et al, 1997
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Roger Smith

Liberal Arts may ultimately prove to be the most relevant learning model. People trained in the Liberal Arts learn to tolerate ambiguity and to bring order out of apparent confusion. They have the kind of sideways thinking and cross-classifying habit of mind that comes from learning, among other things, the many different ways of looking at literary works, social systems, chemical processes or languages.

The liberal arts and the art of management (1987)

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More quotes by Roger Smith

We hope this car will be less labor intensive, less material intensive, less everything intensive than anything we have done before.

R.B. Smith cited in: Lloyd L. Byars (1987)

The ultimate impact of the liberal arts on the art of management, then, is a major contribution to the evolution of an ethical and humanistic capitalism -- a system that stimulates innovation, fosters excellence, enriches society, and dignifies work.

The liberal arts and the art of management (1987)

[Roger B. Smith] identified the following skills and mental processes required of today’s managers as those acquired and sharpened in the study of the liberal arts.

to Roger Smith in: Seyhan N. Ege et al (1997)

The world needs specialists and highly trained people with advanced degrees, no question about it. But the world also needs diversity and versatility. It needs people who know as much about our value system as they do about our solar system system.

I don’t expect them to build a big stone monument to me; that’s not my goal in life. I’d like to think that if I did anything extraordinary, it was the work that we did in getting the corporation ready for the 21st century.

Smith cited in: Micheline Maynard (2007)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Roger Smith (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.