"The great discoveries are usually obvious"
About this Quote
Crosby’s line is a quiet jab at the myth of the lone genius having lightning-bolt revelations in a lab at midnight. In the quality world he helped shape, breakthroughs don’t arrive as exotic new ideas so much as belated acts of attention: noticing the recurring defect, admitting the process is broken, accepting that “we’ve always done it this way” is not evidence. “Usually” is doing the heavy lifting. He’s not claiming discovery is easy; he’s pointing out how often it’s embarrassingly available, sitting in plain sight, waiting for someone to take it seriously.
The intent is managerial, almost tactical. Crosby built a career arguing that quality isn’t a premium feature but a discipline, and that “zero defects” is less a slogan than a refusal to normalize failure. In that context, “obvious” becomes an indictment of organizational blindness. Companies don’t miss the truth because it’s hidden; they miss it because seeing it would force consequences: retraining, redesign, accountability, budget, a bruised ego at the top. Obviousness is politically inconvenient.
The subtext is also a moral one. If the discovery is obvious, then ignorance stops being innocent. You can’t keep treating preventable errors as the cost of doing business. Crosby’s sentence flatters no one, but it offers a clear path forward: stop fetishizing novelty, start respecting fundamentals, and recognize that the biggest “discoveries” often look like common sense only after someone finally pays the price to implement them.
The intent is managerial, almost tactical. Crosby built a career arguing that quality isn’t a premium feature but a discipline, and that “zero defects” is less a slogan than a refusal to normalize failure. In that context, “obvious” becomes an indictment of organizational blindness. Companies don’t miss the truth because it’s hidden; they miss it because seeing it would force consequences: retraining, redesign, accountability, budget, a bruised ego at the top. Obviousness is politically inconvenient.
The subtext is also a moral one. If the discovery is obvious, then ignorance stops being innocent. You can’t keep treating preventable errors as the cost of doing business. Crosby’s sentence flatters no one, but it offers a clear path forward: stop fetishizing novelty, start respecting fundamentals, and recognize that the biggest “discoveries” often look like common sense only after someone finally pays the price to implement them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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