[Haskell] Quotes on thinking

Rishiyur Nikhil nikhil at bluespec.com
Tue Jan 2 11:40:39 EST 2007


>   Quotes of the Week: (from Haskell Digest, Vol 41, Issue 1)
>
>     * cjeris: It's amazing what some languages do to make thinking
>      impossible, seemingly justified by the assumption that no one
>      thinks anyway, so it's more important to make non-thinking
>      programming as easy as possible.

You may be interested in the following quotes:

  Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947):

   "It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copybooks and
    by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should
    cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing.  The precise
    opposite is the case.  Civilization advances by extending the
    number of important operations which we can perform without
    thinking about them."

       [Example: compare long division with Roman numerals and Arabic numerals]

    Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle--they
    are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and
    must only be made at decisive moments."

  Joe Stoy:

   "If you want to reduce ... design time, you have to stop thinking
    about something you used to have to think about."

Nikhil



More information about the Haskell mailing list