A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
ALAN PERLISFools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
More Alan Perlis Quotes
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To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.
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Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
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Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches.
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There is no such thing as a free variable.
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It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
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In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
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A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
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We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines.
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I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing.
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Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.
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In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
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Any noun can be verbed.
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A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
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When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
ALAN PERLIS






