I advise my students to listen carefully the moment they decide to take no more mathematics courses. They might be able to hear the sound of closing doors - James Caballero. "Everyone is a Mathematician," CAIP Quarterly 1989.
When we fail to understand that all elements of projects are random variables that interact with each other in non-linear, non-stationary, and stochastic manner and that making decisions about projects requires assessing the impact on future outcomes from these random variables, we've confirmed we stopped listening too soon to those mathematics teachers and are now adrift in the sea of uncertainty with no reference point to know how to avoid spending our customers money without knowing how much, when we'll be done, and the most critical of all if we'll be able to earn back the Value in exchange for that money.
