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diff --git a/content/philosophy.md b/content/philosophy.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fb0929 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/philosophy.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Philosophy" +description: "" +date: 2019-02-28T09:52:26+01:00 +publishDate: 2019-02-28T09:52:26+01:00 +author: "Dimitri Staessens" +images: [] +draft: false +tags: [] +--- + +<center></center> + +During his entire scientific career, Edsger Dijkstra broke a lance for +the creed -- which he attributes to Tony Hoare -- that [*simplicity is +prerequisite for +reliability*](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD619.html). He +spent a lot of time and effort convincing his contemporaries in the +computing science community that *elegance is not a dispensable +luxury, but a matter of life and death*. Dijkstra was painfully aware +that [*simplicity is very hard to +achieve*](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD896.html) +and grossly underrated, even to the point that the academic and +economic reward systems work against any attempt do so: "*complexity +sells better*". With some computer engineers living by the motto *move +fast and break things*, Dijkstra would most definitely [not have been +happy](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EWD1213.html) +with much of the current state of affairs of computing science. While +he always will be considered one of the greatest computer scientists +that ever lived, his passionate message to diligently strive for +elegance seems to be all but erased from the collective consciousness +of engineers and computer scientists. Are we further away today from +computing's central challenge today than we were [almost 20 years ago] +(https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD13xx/EWD1304.html)? + +<center></center> + + |