Leslie Lamport famous quotes

A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Technology #Computer

Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Writing #Thinking #Way

There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding their complexity. If the race is won by our tools, then systems will eventually become easier to use and more reliable. If not, they will continue to become harder to use and less reliable for all but a relatively small set of common tasks. Given how hard thinking is, if those intellectual tools are to succeed, they will have to substitute calculation for thought.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Learning #Thinking #Race

Formatting is no substitute for writing.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Writing #Statistics #Substitutes

When I write a paper, I change my notation much more than I change my concepts.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Writing #Paper #Statistics

Thinking is not the ability to manipulate language; it’s the ability to manipulate concepts.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Thinking #Language #Ability

Thinking doesn't guarantee that we won't make mistakes. But not thinking guarantees that we will.
-- Leslie Lamport

#Mistake #Thinking #Guarantees That

"Sometimes" is sometimes "not never".
-- Leslie Lamport

#Sometimes

Misuse of reason might yet return the world to pre-technological night; plenty of religious zealots hunger for just such a result, and are happy to use the latest technology to effect it.

They say an elephant never forgets. Well, you are not an elephant. Take notes, constantly. Save interesting thoughts, quotations, films, technologies…the medium doesn't matter, so long as it inspires you. When you're stumped, go to your notes like a wizard to his spellbook. Mash those thoughts together. Extend them in every direction until they meet.

The business models in enterprise have changed pretty dramatically. A huge problem with enterprise software traditionally has been usually you sell to the customer and then they adopt the technology. The great thing about 'freemium' and the new way enterprise software is being sold is you get to try it first and then buy it.

Being around some of the bright lights of the technology world and having them expect great things helps you sit down and do it seriously.

I don't understand technology, and I'm very scared of it.

Why we do what we do: that moment when you get to see the future on your computer screen before the rest of the world.

I don't know anything about computers.

Computers no longer interface with humans--they interact, and the interaction will become steadily deeper, more subtle, and more crucial to our collective sanity and ultimate survival.

I don't know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras.

Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.