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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.

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
Something
Meta
Explain
Draw
Draws
Design
Easier
Difficult
Much

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The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.
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Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.
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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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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 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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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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I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.
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I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.
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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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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 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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A mathematical formula should never be owned by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.
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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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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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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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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.
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An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
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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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