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.
Her own misery filled her heart—there was no room in it for other people's sorrow.
When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give.
I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air beat upward to god's throne in loud access of shrieking and reproach
Balm of the summer night, balm of the ordinary, imperial joy and sorrow of human existence, the dreamed as well as the lived— what could be dearer than this, given the closeness of death?
And alien tears will fill for him pity's long broken urn. For his mourners will all be outcast men, and outcasts always mourn.
The dead...are more real than the living because they are complete.
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