You May Also Like / View all maxioms
People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.
People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.
For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If read more
For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.
The facts of the present won't sit still for a portrait. They are constantly vibrating, full of clutter and confusion.
The facts of the present won't sit still for a portrait. They are constantly vibrating, full of clutter and confusion.
What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying read more
What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
FORTRAN --'the infantile disorder'--, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in read more
FORTRAN --'the infantile disorder'--, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.
PL/I --'the fatal disease'-- belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums.
The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.
The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.
By the time (the Leaning Tower of Pisa) was 10% built, everyone knew it would be a total disaster. But read more
By the time (the Leaning Tower of Pisa) was 10% built, everyone knew it would be a total disaster. But the investment was so big they felt compelled to go on. Since its completion, it cost a fortune to maintain and is still in danger of collapsing. There are no plans to replace it, since it was never needed in the first place. I expect every installation has its own pet software which is analogous to the above.
Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.
Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.
