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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.

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
Theory
Almost
Theoretical
Practice
Theories
Start
Practicals
Attention
Practical
Find
Turning
Things
Improve
Time
Spending

More quotes by Donald Knuth

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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
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My first program taught me a lot about the errors that I was going to be making in the future, and also about how to find errors. That's sort of the story of my life, making errors and trying to recover from them. I try to get things correct. I probably obsess about not making too many mistakes.
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There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.
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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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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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I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.
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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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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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We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
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Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.
Donald Knuth
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The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.
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How can you own numbers? Numbers belong to the world.
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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.
Donald Knuth
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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.
Donald Knuth
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A list is only as strong as its weakest link.
Donald Knuth
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I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.
Donald Knuth
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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.
Donald Knuth
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It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.
Donald Knuth
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I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.
Donald Knuth
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The best practice is inspired by theory.
Donald Knuth