Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term.

I think the trick with knowledge is to “acquire it, and forget all except the perfume” - because it is noisy and sometimes drowns out one's own “brain voices”. The perfume part is important because it will help find the knowledge again to help get to the destinations the inner urges pick.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

School is basically about one point of view - the one the teacher has or the textbooks have. They don't like the idea of having different points of view.

An important technology first creates a problem and then solves it.

Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

The tree of research must be fed from time to time with the blood of bean-counters, for it is its natural manure.