Hal Abelson Quotes
Now, the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments. And that is, when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use.
Quotes to Explore
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We must become acquainted with our emotional household: we must see our feelings as they actually are, not as we assume they are. This breaks their hypnotic and damaging hold on us.
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In truth, opinion may be taken for understanding; understanding cannot be taken for opinion. How so? Surely because opinion may be deceived; understanding cannot be. If it could, it would not be understanding but opinion. For true understanding has not only certain truth, but the knowledge of truth.
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Big Business can make laws as easily as it can break them - and with as little impunity.
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Humor is a wonderful way to deal with our suffering because if we can laugh at our troubles, we can feel better. Thich Nhat Hanh is a special man who has helped millions with their suffering with incredible technique. But he doesn't know real suffering, because he has not dated as much as I have.
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You don't go into politics unless you want to win.
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All I wanted to do was be a working actor.
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Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic.
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My mother was against me being an artist. She just wanted me to marry a rich man.
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I had what AA calls 'a convincer' – which made me realize that I couldn't do it any more. I went out drinking for about 70 hours here in London. At the end I knew I was done.
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There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us.
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Daring is not safe against daring men.
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A man has a birthright to be tired and retired. I am retired completely.
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I am sure it does not hurt that Mitt Romney is my dad. I'm sure it's opened a lot of doors for me. But I think I've been pretty effective once I've gotten through the door at doing a pretty good job.
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But then I hit my 20s and only made two albums, and now I live in a ski resort as a ski bum basically.
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'The Fight Club' DVD is great. I like anything that has really good extras because as an actor, it's really great to see the behind-the-scenes stuff and see how different actors approach their particular project.
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I'm almost completely without family and it's a very odd feeling in life. I have no children.
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If I'm on holiday, I'm active on the beach, I play tennis, I run, I swim a lot. It's just about making the workouts fun, I think, and then it doesn't really feel that bad.
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I would like to be a polyglot.
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Books are humanity in print.
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You have to believe in yourself in spite of what other people believe.
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I'm from that generation where there aren't that many pictures of me as a baby.
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That was my aspiration, so I was there in a seminary with just boys who were studying to be priests. Pretty rigorous schooling; we never got home, we stayed there all year.
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It is the perfection of God's works that they are all done with the greatest simplicity. He is the God of order and not of confusion. And therefore as they would understand the frame of the world must endeavor to reduce their knowledge to all possible simplicity, so must it be in seeking to understand these visions.
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Now, the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments. And that is, when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use.
