“A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions.
By thoughts I mean, specifically, chatter in the skull—perpetual and compulsive repetition of words, of reckoning, and of calculating.
I’m not saying that thinking is bad; like everything else, it’s useful in moderation, a good servant but a bad master.
And all so-called civilised peoples have increasingly become crazy and self destructive because through excessive thinking they have lost touch with reality. That’s to say we confuse signs, words, numbers, symbols, and ideas with the real world.
Most of us would have rather money than tangible wealth. And a great occasion is somehow spoiled for us unless photographed.”
—Alan Watts
By thoughts I mean, specifically, chatter in the skull—perpetual and compulsive repetition of words, of reckoning, and of calculating.
I’m not saying that thinking is bad; like everything else, it’s useful in moderation, a good servant but a bad master.
And all so-called civilised peoples have increasingly become crazy and self destructive because through excessive thinking they have lost touch with reality. That’s to say we confuse signs, words, numbers, symbols, and ideas with the real world.
Most of us would have rather money than tangible wealth. And a great occasion is somehow spoiled for us unless photographed.”
—Alan Watts
“Raise your quality standards as high as you can live with, avoid wasting your time on routine problems, and always try to work as closely as possible at the boundary of your abilities. Do this, because it is the only way of discovering how that boundary should be moved forward.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra
― Edsger W. Dijkstra
“It is not only the violin that shapes the violinist, we are all shaped by the tools we train ourselves to use, and in this respect programming languages have a devious influence: they shape our thinking habits.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra
― Edsger W. Dijkstra
“Your obligation is that of active participation. You should not act as knowledge-absorbing sponges, but as whetstones on which we can all sharpen our wits”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra
― Edsger W. Dijkstra
“In a society in which the educational system is used as an instrument for the establishment of a homogenized culture, in which the cream is prevented from rising to the top, the education of competent programmers could be politically impalatable.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra, EWD 340: The Humble Programmer
― Edsger W. Dijkstra, EWD 340: The Humble Programmer