Let Us Change Our Traditional Attitude To

...one Of The Most Important Lessons, Perhaps, Is The Fact That Software Is Hard. From Now On I Shall Have Significantly Greater Respect For Every Successful Software Tool That I Encounter. During The Past Decade I Was Surprised To Learn That The Writing Of Programs For Tex And Metafont Proved To Be Much More Difficult Than All The Other Things I Had Done (like Proving Theorems Or Writing Books). The Creation Of Good Software Demand A Significiantly Higher Standard Of Accuracy Than Those Other Things Do, And It Requires A Longer Attention Span Than Other Intellectual Tasks.

The Hardest Thing Is To Go To Sleep At Night, When There Are So Many Urgent Things Needing To Be Done. A Huge Gap Exists Between What We Know Is Possible With Today's Machines And What We Have So Far Been Able To Finish.

A Mathematical Formula Should Never Be "owned" By Anybody! Mathematics Belong To God.

In Fact What I Would Like To See Is Thousands Of Computer Scientists Let Loose To Do Whatever They Want. That's What Really Advances The Field.

Computer Programming Is An Art, Because It Applies Accumulated Knowledge To The World, Because It Requires Skill And Ingenuity, And Especially Because It Produces Objects Of Beauty. A Programmer Who Subconsciously Views Himself As An Artist Will Enjoy What He Does And Will Do It Better.