Predictability

Predictability is the degree to which a correct prediction or forecast of a system's state can be made either qualitatively or quantitatively.

Quotes

 * Men are often praised for their sagacity, but all the foresight in the world can't tell a double-yoked egg until it is broken.
 * Josh Billings, His Works, Complete (1873)


 * ... an artist should paint from the heart, and not always what people expect. Predictability often leads to the dullest work, in my opinion, and we have been bored stiff long enough I think.
 * E.A. Bucchianeri in Brushstrokes of a Gadfly


 * Life’s solution builds a forceful case for the predictability of evolutionary outcomes, not in terms of genetic details but rather their broad phenotypic manifestations. The case rests on a remarkable compilation of examples of convergent evolution, in which two or more lineages have independently evolved similar structures and functions.
 * Simon Conway Morris in Nature (Vol. 425, p767)


 * It's weird how I am constantly surprised by the passage of time when it's literally the most predictable thing in the Universe.
 * Randall Munroe in xkcd 1477


 * When what we believe we’ve mastered is no longer predictable we’re not fine. The world suddenly is a very scary place. It loses its charm.
 * Patricia Cornwell in Dust