Alan Perlis Quotes

While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other.

If you spend a whole afternoon just eating popcorn and watching football, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if that's all you do, you get swept along with the tide, without any idea of where you're going.

Play so that you may be serious.

We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock.

When you focus on life, on enjoying and connecting with other people, that's when work comes. When you focus on work, you can never work. I'm always going through waves of that.

The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

You want to have fun but you also want to work well. Sometimes I was quite happy at Ferrari, because we would have fun, but then they could not stop having fun and go back to the real work.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Figure out what you really love doing and use your strengths on a daily basis.

I don't choose to analyze what I have done and I think that is the right choice, because then I won't be spending my time creating.

I have had more honors than I've deserved and more rewards than I expected. It can be tempting just to say, 'Well, I'm going to retire.' But what would I do then? Sit in a chair and watch TV? Don't let fulfillment throw away your tomorrow.

I like to feel occupied.

My mind is always going. I'm always thinking what I need to do, what I haven't done, what I did do, what I didn't do as well as I could - I'm relentless that way with myself.

Probably nothing serious or worthwhile can be accomplished without one's willingness to be alone for sustained periods of time, which is not to say that one must live alone, obsessively.

The examined life is no picnic.

All we have to do is find something we love doing each day, surround ourselves with like-minded people, and put all of our effort into that one thing at all times.

I've gotten this advice at different times, and it distills down to one word: purpose. Why are you here? When you start to get distracted by thoughts such as 'Do I fit in? Does this person like me?' - remember why you're there and what you want to accomplish.

It's very important for people to know what gives them meaning. But it's hard for people to figure out if you're not connecting with yourself and taking the time to just be introspective and daydream.

If I fall into a city, I fall into a scene, and I just don't want to get distracted and enjoy myself too much. There's too much work to be done.

Other people's deconstruction of your motivations doesn't help you do what you do. You can't swallow and think about swallowing at the same time.

Busy is good, isn't it? Busy means we're hard at it, achieving our ends or "goals." Haven't had time to stop, or look around or think. That's considered the sign of a life well lived ... Suppose, though, you're not sure that what you're doing is at all worthwhile. Suppose you blundered into it over a spoonful of lime pickle. It's easy, it pays quite well. But really it's a distraction. It stops you thinking about what you ought to be doing.

Work and play can be the same. When you are following your energy and doing what you want to do all the time, the distinction between work and play dissolves. Work is no longer what you have to do, and play what you want to do. When you are doing what you love, you may work harder and produce more than ever before, because you are having fun.

The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the life too closely examined may not be lived at all.

A few years ago I met an old professor at the University of Notre Dame. Looking back on his long life of teaching, he said with a funny wrinkle in his eyes: I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.

I learn that you can work really hard and still have a great time. That is part of Russell Crowe philosophy.