Computer Science Has As Much To Do

If In Physics There's Something You Don't Understand, You Can Always Hide Behind The Uncharted Depths Of Nature. You Can Always Blame God. You Didn't Make It So Complex Yourself. But If Your Program Doesn't Work, There Is No One To Hide Behind. You Cannot Hide Behind An Obstinate Nature. If It Doesn't Work, You've Messed Up.

When I Came Back From Munich, It Was September, And I Was Professor Of Mathematics At The Eindhoven University Of Technology. Later I Learned That I Had Been The Department's Third Choice, After Two Numerical Analysts Had Turned The Invitation Down; The Decision To Invite Me Had Not Been An Easy One, On The One Hand Because I Had Not Really Studied Mathematics, And On The Other Hand Because Of My Sandals, My Beard And My "arrogance" (whatever That May Be).

...simplifications Have Had A Much Greater Long-range Scientific Impact Than Individual Feats Of Ingenuity. The Opportunity For Simplification Is Very Encouraging, Because In All Examples That Come To Mind The Simple And Elegant Systems Tend To Be Easier And Faster To Design And Get Right, More Efficient In Execution, And Much More Reliable Than The More Contrived Contraptions That Have To Be Debugged Into Some Degree Of Acceptability....simplicity And Elegance Are Unpopular Because They Require Hard Work And Discipline To Achieve And Education To Be Appreciated.

The Use Of Cobol Cripples The Mind; Its Teaching Should, Therefore, Be Regarded As A Criminal Offense.

In The Software Business There Are Many Enterprises For Which It Is Not Clear That Science Can Help Them; That Science Should Try Is Not Clear Either.