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The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.

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
Work
Ingredient
Ingredients
Enjoyment
Essential
Essentials
Tools
Successful

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I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.
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Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random
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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%
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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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A list is only as strong as its weakest link.
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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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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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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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I'm obsessively detail-oriented.
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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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Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
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The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.
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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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I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.
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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.
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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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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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I currently use Ubuntu Linux, on a standalone laptop - it has no Internet connection. I occasionally carry flash memory drives between this machine and the Macs that I use for network surfing and graphics but I trust my family jewels only to Linux.
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Beware of bugs in the above code I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Donald Knuth