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You think you KNOW when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.

Alan Perlis

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Alan Perlis
Age: 67 †
Born: 1922
Born: April 1
Died: 1990
Died: February 7
Computer Scientist
Mathematician
University Teacher
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
Alan Jay Perlis
Alan J. Perlis
Learn
Write
Certain
Writing
Programming
Even
Program
Think
Learning
Thinking
Teach
Sure

More quotes by Alan Perlis

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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
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If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
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Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't.
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If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
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Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
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One can only display complex information in the mind. Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word frustration.
Alan Perlis
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
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The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland, but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
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There are two ways to write error-free programs only the third one works.
Alan Perlis