Quote

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.

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
Work
Handle
Failure
Wrong
Success
Solved
Easy
Dealing
Also
Improve
Problem
Investing
Hard
Math

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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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One man's constant is another man's variable.
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FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.
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When someone says, I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done, give him a lollipop.
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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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A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
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Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
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In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
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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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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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A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
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Optimization hinders evolution. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
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C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.
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Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.
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Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
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Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.
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You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
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