Philip Greenspun quotes

“Even within traditional universities there has always been debate about whether it wouldn't be better to focus on only one course at a time.”
-- Philip Greenspun

Source : Slashdot interview, tech.slashdot.org. April 27, 2000.

#Focus Quotes #Debate Quotes #University Quotes

“Everything that I've learned about computers at MIT I have boiled down into three principles: Unix: You think it won't work, but if you find the right wizard, they can make it work. Macintosh: You think it will work, but it won't. PC/Windows: You think it won't work, and it won't.”
-- Philip Greenspun

Source : Philip Greenspun (1999). “Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing”, p.202, Morgan Kaufmann

#Thinking Quotes #Three Quotes #Mit Quotes

“I don't myself believe in astrology. However, I think that's because I'm a Libra and Libras are always skeptical.”
-- Philip Greenspun

#Believe Quotes #Thinking Quotes #Astrology Quotes

“The book the Ziff folks sent me as an example of their art was 'Late Night VRML 2.0 with Java,' 700 pages + CD-ROM, published February 1997. I was personally acquainted with more movie stars than people who might conceivably have wanted to buy this book or any book like it.”
-- Philip Greenspun

#Art Quotes #Stars Quotes #Book Quotes

“Progress in computer science is made with the distribution of revolutionary software systems and the publication of revolutionary books. We don't need a fancy information system to alert us to these grand events; they will hit us in the face. Another good excuse for ignoring the literature is that, since everyone has strong beliefs about fundamentals but can't support those beliefs rationally or consistently convince non-believers, computer science is actually a religion.”
-- Philip Greenspun

#Strong Quotes #Book Quotes #Support Quotes

“We worried about competitors, but it was an unreasonable fear. As a friend once pointed out, most gunshot wounds are self-inflicted.”
-- Philip Greenspun

#Self Quotes #Worried Quotes #Unreasonable Quotes

“We're not a vocational school. If someone wants to get a high-paying job, I would hope that there are easier ways to do it than working through a formal computer science curriculum.”
-- Philip Greenspun

Source : "Philip Greenspun Answers". Slashdot Interview, tech.slashdot.org. April 27, 2000.

#Jobs Quotes #School Quotes #Want Quotes

“If I'd had more time or been a better writer, I would have tried to put the same ideas and experiences into a novel. But I didn't so I slapped it up on the Web.”
-- Philip Greenspun

Source : Slashdot interview, tech.slashdot.org. April 27, 2000.

#Ideas Quotes #More Time Quotes #Novel Quotes

“Even the lamest page can be saved by collaboration.”
-- Philip Greenspun

Source : "Interactive Web sites to thrive" by Nancy Weil, www.cnn.com. February 9, 2000.

#Collaboration Quotes #Pages Quotes

“SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing.”
-- Philip Greenspun

Source : "How long is the average Internet discussion forum posting?". Philip Greenspun's Weblog, blogs.harvard.edu. March 7, 2005.

#Thinking Quotes #Language Quotes #Programming Quotes

“Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.”
-- Philip Greenspun

#Bugs Quotes #Half Quotes #Common Quotes

“When you choose a language, youre also choosing a community. The programmers youll be able to hire to work on a Java project wont be as smart as the ones you could get to work on a project written in Python. And the quality of your hackers probably matters more than the language you choose. Though, frankly, the fact that good hackers prefer Python to Java should tell you something about the relative merits of those languages.”
-- Philip Greenspun

#Smart Quotes #Python Quotes #Community Quotes