Quote

I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.

Donald Knuth

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Take
Going
Long
Good
Things
Never

More quotes by Donald Knuth

Image
Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random
Donald Knuth
Image
By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method it is much closer to reality.
Donald Knuth
Image
TeX has found at least one bug in every Pascal compiler it's been run on, I think, and at least two in every C compiler
Donald Knuth
Image
I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.
Donald Knuth
Image
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
Image
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.
Donald Knuth
Image
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.
Donald Knuth
Image
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
Donald Knuth
Image
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.
Donald Knuth
Image
I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study.
Donald Knuth
Image
I'm obsessively detail-oriented.
Donald Knuth
Image
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
Donald Knuth
Image
How can you own numbers? Numbers belong to the world.
Donald Knuth
Image
Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.
Donald Knuth
Image
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
Image
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.
Donald Knuth
Image
A list is only as strong as its weakest link.
Donald Knuth
Image
I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.
Donald Knuth
Image
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
Image
We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
Donald Knuth