Marvin Minsky Quotes

Take Lisp, you know its the most beautiful language in the world -- at least up until Haskell came along.

I am a programmer.

The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.

The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.

C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.

Owning a computer without programming is like having a kitchen and using only the microwave oven

I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.

For those who wish to stay and work in computer science or technology, fields badly in need of their services, let’s roll out the welcome mat.

Think of prototypes as a funny markup language--the interpretation is left up to the rendering engine.

Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in what they make easy.

APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.

Computer science is the operating system for all innovation.

I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.

Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch type has to do with writing poetry

Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.

Computer science needs to be part of the core curriculum - like algebra, biology, physics, or chemistry. We need all schools to teach it, not just 10%.

I fear - as far as I can tell - that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training. I've heard complaints from even mighty Stanford University with its illustrious faculty that basically the undergraduate computer science program is little more than Java certification.

Java and C++ make you think that the new ideas are like the old ones. Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS.

I made up the term "object-oriented," and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.

A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.

Obviously, the person who had most influence on my career was Ken Thompson. Unix was basically his, likewise C's predecessor, likewise much of the basis of Plan 9 (though Rob Pike was the real force in getting it together). And in the meantime Ken created the first computer chess master and pretty much rewrote the book on chess endgames. He is quite a phenomenon.

Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn

As we said in the preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we still feel that way.

If you've never programmed a computer, you should. There's nothing like it in the whole world. When you program a computer, it does exactly what you tell it to do. It's like designing a machine — any machine, like a car, like a faucet, like a gas-hinge for a door — using math and instructions. It's awesome in the truest sense: it can fill you with awe.

It would've been amazing [to work as programmer]. You're good at numbers, you're good with people, you like to wear shorts in the summertime.