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I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.

Edsger Dijkstra

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Edsger Dijkstra
Age: 72 †
Born: 1930
Born: May 11
Died: 2002
Died: August 5
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Mathematician
Physicist
Scientist
University Teacher
R'dam
Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
Dijkstra
EWD
E.W. Dijkstra
Concept
Concepts
Explicitly
Notion
Heading
Perfection
Headings
Days
Mentioned
Spirit
Fashionable
Competitive
Excellence

More quotes by Edsger Dijkstra

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Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
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Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well.
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Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.
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Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
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If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.
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It is not the task of the University to offer what society asks for, but to give what society needs.
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The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.
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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
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We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people sometimes they follow it!
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The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
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It is a mistake to think that programmers wares are programs. Programmers have to produce trustworthy solutions and present it in the form of cogent arguments. Programs source code is just the accompanying material to which these arguments are to be applied to.
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Much of the excitement we get out of our work is that we don't really know what we are doing.
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We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers.
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The use of COBOL cripples the mind its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.
Edsger Dijkstra
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Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.
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Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.
Edsger Dijkstra
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LISP has jokingly been described as the most intelligent way to misuse a computer. I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavour of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
Edsger Dijkstra
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Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!
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PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
Edsger Dijkstra
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APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.
Edsger Dijkstra