Rob Pike Quotes

• There's nothing in computing that can't be broken by another level of indirection.

  Rob Pike

  Broken, Levels, Programming

  47 Copy quote

• Data dominates. If you've chosen the right data structures and organized things well, the algorithms will almost always be self-evident. Data structures, not algorithms, are central to programming.

  Rob Pike

  Self, Data, Algorithms

  24 Copy quote

• Object-oriented design is the roman numerals of computing.

  Rob Pike

  Roman Numerals, Design, Computing

  Comment in comp.os.plan9, groups.google.com. 2004.

  18 Copy quote

• Eventually, I decided that thinking was not getting me very far and it was time to try building.

  Rob Pike

  Thinking, Trying, Building

  10 Copy quote

• Narrowness of experience leads to narrowness of imagination

  Rob Pike

  Imagination

  20 Copy quote

• Such is modern computing: everything simple is made too complicated because it's easy to fiddle with; everything complicated stays complicated because it's hard to fix.

  Rob Pike

  Simple, Complicated, Modern

  16 Copy quote

• Fancy algorithms are slow when N is small, and N is usually small.

  Rob Pike

  Learning, Algorithms, Fancy

  19 Copy quote

• Procedure names should reflect what they do; function names should reflect what they return

  Rob Pike

  Names, Return, Should

  11 Copy quote

• Languages that try to disallow idiocy become themselves idiotic.

  Rob Pike

  Trying, Language, Programming

  9 Copy quote

• Not only is UNIX dead, it's starting to smell really bad.

  Rob Pike

  Smell, Programming, Starting

  14 Copy quote

• Productivity is most important by engineering management rules, but enjoyment is most important for engineers. One stems from the other.

  Rob Pike

  Engineering, Important, Management

  6 Copy quote

• When there is no type hierarchy you don't have to manage the type hierarchy.

  Rob Pike

  Hierarchy, Programming, Type

  7 Copy quote

• Caches aren't architecture, they're just optimization.

  Rob Pike

  Cache, Architecture, Optimization

  15 Copy quote

• If POSIX threads are a good thing, perhaps I don't want to know what they're better than.

  Rob Pike

  Want, Good Things, Thread

  12 Copy quote

• Using Unix is the computing equivalent of listening only to music by David Cassidy.

  Rob Pike

  Listening, Language, Unix

  "Rob Pike Responds". Slashdot Interview, interviews.slashdot.org. October 18, 2004.

  8 Copy quote

• Rule 1. You can't tell where a program is going to spend its time. Bottlenecks occur in surprising places, so don't try to second guess and put in a speed hack until you've proven that's where the bottleneck is

  Rob Pike

  Trying, Speed, Program

  9 Copy quote

• There's no such thing as a simple cache bug.

  Rob Pike

  Simple, Cache, Bugs

  8 Copy quote

• Why would you have a language that is not theoretically exciting? Because it's very useful.

  Rob Pike

  Language, Programming, Exciting

  10 Copy quote

• Sockets are the X windows of IO interfaces.

  Rob Pike

  Ios, Window, Interfaces

  4 Copy quote

• A smart terminal is not a smartass terminal, but rather a terminal you can educate.

  Rob Pike

  Smart, Programming, Educate

  10 Copy quote

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