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We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%
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
Efficiency
Opportunity
Root
Time
Opportunities
Critical
Pass
Efficiencies
Roots
Optimization
Small
Debugging
More quotes by Donald Knuth
People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones.
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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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The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.
Donald Knuth
Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.
Donald Knuth
I'm obsessively detail-oriented.
Donald Knuth
It is much more rewarding to do more with less.
Donald Knuth
Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.
Donald Knuth
The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.
Donald Knuth
It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.
Donald Knuth
The psychological profiling [of a programmer] is mostly the ability to shift levels of abstraction, from low level to high level. To see something in the small and to see something in the large.
Donald Knuth
By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method it is much closer to reality.
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People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.
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The manuals we got from IBM would show examples of programs and I knew I could do a heck of a lot better than that. So I thought I might have some talent.
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Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
Donald Knuth
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
Donald Knuth
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.
Donald Knuth
The best theory is inspired by practice.
Donald Knuth
How can you own numbers? Numbers belong to the world.
Donald Knuth
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.
Donald Knuth
Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer.
Donald Knuth