Algorithms Quotes

• An algorithm must be seen to be believed.

  Donald Knuth

  Engineering, Computer Science

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1997). “The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental algorithms”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• There is no algorithm for creativity.

  Andy Hargreaves

  Leadership, Learning, Creativity

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• The algorithms that orchestrate our ads are starting to orchestrate our lives.

  Eli Pariser

  Starting, Ads, Our Lives

  Eli Pariser (2011). “The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think”, p.15, Penguin

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• Algorithms don't do a good job of detecting their own flaws.

  Clay Shirky

  Jobs, Flaws, Good Job

  "This much I know". Interview with John Hind, www.theguardian.com. February 14, 2009.

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• An algorithm is like a recipe.

  Muhammad Waseem

  Recipes

  "Len Testa and the math behind your theme park vacation". Interview with Sophie Brown, www.wired.com. November 14, 2012.

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• More data beats clever algorithms, but better data beats more data.

  Peter Norvig

  Clever, Data, Beats

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

  Rob Pike

  Learning, Fancy, Programming

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• By 2025, 80 percent of the functions doctors do will be done much better and much more cheaply by machines and machine learned algorithms.

  Vinod Khosla

  Technology, Medicine, Doctors

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• Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break.

  Bruce Schneier

  Clueless, Break

  "Memo to the Amateur Cipher Designer". Cryptogram Newsletter, www.schneier.com. October 15, 1998.

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• We dont have better algorithms, we just have more data

  Peter Norvig

  Data

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• I really wanted to talk to her. I just couldn't find an algorithm that fit.

  Peter Watts

  Fit, Wanted

  Peter Watts (2014). “Firefall”, p.213, Head of Zeus

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• The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly. A programmer is ideally an essayist who works with traditional aesthetic and literary forms as well as mathematical concepts, to communicate the way that an algorithm works and to convince a reader that the results will be correct.

  Donald Knuth

  Machines, Way, Program

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• Mathematics my foot! Algorithms are mathematics too, and often more interesting and definitely more useful.

  Doron Zeilberger

  Feet, Interesting, Mathematics

  "The Narrow-Minded and Ignorant Referee's Report [and Zeilberger's Response] of Zeilberger's Paper 'Automaric CounTilings'". Ruthgers School of Arts and Sciences Website, sites.math.rutgers.edu. April 15, 2006.

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• In fact, there was general agreement that minds can exist on nonbiological substrates and that algorithms are of central importance to the existence of minds.

  Vernor Vinge

  Agreement, Mind, Facts

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• There is no Algorithm for Humor

  Robert Mankoff

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• The Google algorithm was a significant development. I've had thank-you emails from people whose lives have been saved by information on a medical website or who have found the love of their life on a dating website.

  Tim Berners-Lee

  People, Dating, Google

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• Humans are very good at making algorithms work eventually.

  Usama Fayyad

  Very Good, Humans

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• The burgeoning field of computer science has shifted our view of the physical world from that of a collection of interacting material particles to one of a seething network of information. In this way of looking at nature, the laws of physics are a form of software, or algorithm, while the material world-the hardware-plays the role of a gigantic computer.

  Paul Davies

  Nature, Science, Views

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• 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, Structure

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• I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.

  Donald Knuth

  People, Patents, Use

  "The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 3: Sorting and Searching". Book by Donald E. Knuth, 1973.

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• [The Euclidean algorithm is] the granddaddy of all algorithms, because it is the oldest nontrivial algorithm that has survived to the present day.

  Donald Knuth

  History, Present Day, Granddaddy

  Donald E. Knuth (2014). “Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms”, p.550, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• There are lots of different ways that algorithms can go wrong, and what we have now is a system in which we assume because it's shiny new technology with a mathematical aura that it's perfect and it doesn't require further vetting. Of course, we never have that assumption with other kinds of technology.

  Cathy O'Neil

  Technology, Perfect, Auras

  Source: www.salon.com

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• Mathematics is as much an aspect of culture as it is a collection of algorithms.

  Carl Benjamin Boyer

  Math, Science, Culture

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• I know how models are built, because I build them myself, so I know that I'm embedding my values into every single algorithm I create and I am projecting my agenda onto those algorithms.

  Cathy O'Neil

  Agendas, Embedding, Models

  Source: www.salon.com

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• We don't let a car company just throw out a car and start driving it around without checking that the wheels are fastened on. We know that would result in death; but for some reason we have no hesitation at throwing out some algorithms untested and unmonitored even when they're making very important life-and-death decisions.

  Cathy O'Neil

  Car, Life And Death, Decision

  Source: www.salon.com

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