We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%
Interpretation
Overemphasis on minor improvements can hinder overall progress, but seizing critical opportunities is essential.
In this quote, Donald Knuth emphasizes the danger of focusing too much on optimizing minor elements of a task or system, as it can lead to wasted time and effort, referred to as 'premature optimization'. He suggests that while it's necessary to let go of optimizing small efficiencies most of the time, we must remain vigilant and seize the rare opportunities that truly matter, representing the crucial 3% that can lead to significant advancements.
In practice
During a tech conference, to illustrate how to prioritize tasks effectively.
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.
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.
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.
People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.
Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
It doesn't really matter how much of the rules or the dogma we accepted and lived by if we're not really living by the fundamental creed of the Catholic Church, which is service to others and finding God in ourselves and then seeing God in everyone - including our enemies.
Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.
Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both.
As people used to be wrong about the motion of the sun, so they are still wrong about the motion of the future. The future stands still, it is we who move in infinite space.
There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.
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