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We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

Donald Knuth

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Donald Knuth
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: January 10
Academic
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Historian Of Mathematics
Mathematician
Programmer
University Teacher
Writer
Milwaukee City
Wisconsin
Donald E. Knuth
Don Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth
D.E.K.
DEK
Knuth
Forget
Premature
Evil
Programmers
Time
Efficiency
Programming
Root
Roots
Efficiencies
Learning
Optimization
Small
Debugging

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An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
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It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.
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Meta-design is much more difficult than design it's easier to draw something than to explain how to draw it.
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The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.
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If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things it will improve your practice.
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I think people who write programs do have at least a glimmer of extra insight into the nature of God... because creating a program often means that you have to create a small universe
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Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.
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Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer.
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I can’t go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu.
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A mathematical formula should never be owned by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.
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I'm obsessively detail-oriented.
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Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
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The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.
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In fact, my main conclusion after spending ten years of my life working on the TEX project is that software is hard. It's harder than anything else I've ever had to do.
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I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.
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I remember that mathematicians were telling me in the 1960s that they would recognize computer science as a mature discipline when it had 1,000 deep algorithms. I think we've probably reached 500.
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My general working style is to write everything first with pencil and paper, sitting beside a big wastebasket. Then I use Emacs to enter the text into my machine.
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Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.
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Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better.
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AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires 'thinking' but has failed to do most of what people and animals do 'without thinking'-that, somehow, is much harder.
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