Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Was Einstein winking when he said this?

Was Einstein winking when he said this?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
35 Posts 21 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • F F ES Sitecore

    "Don't believe everything you read on the internet." - Albert Einstein

    M Offline
    M Offline
    Mark_Wallace
    wrote on last edited by
    #9

    That was Newton.

    I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

    D 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • B B Clay Shannon

      I saw Einstein's famous quote about the need for simplicity on slashdot today: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein ...but then realized that the quote itself as not as simple as possible, because the potentially simple sentence is complex - the ending clause is redundant, for if something is already as simple as possible, it's impossible to simplify it further. Was he of the wild hair pulling our leg?

      9 Offline
      9 Offline
      9082365
      wrote on last edited by
      #10

      I think you're simply failing to appreciate that the word 'simple' is simply being used with two distinct, simple meanings; in the first case 'easy to understand or mentally manipulate', in the second 'idiotic', neither of which, incidentally necessarily conforms exactly to your imposed meaning of 'not complex'. In doing so you have highlighted the simple problem with all positivist interpretations of language, simple rigidity!

      I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • M Mark_Wallace

        That was Newton.

        I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

        D Offline
        D Offline
        den2k88
        wrote on last edited by
        #11

        I thought it was Newton-John.

        GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • B B Clay Shannon

          I saw Einstein's famous quote about the need for simplicity on slashdot today: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein ...but then realized that the quote itself as not as simple as possible, because the potentially simple sentence is complex - the ending clause is redundant, for if something is already as simple as possible, it's impossible to simplify it further. Was he of the wild hair pulling our leg?

          M Offline
          M Offline
          Mark_Wallace
          wrote on last edited by
          #12

          It's perfectly normal; he's using different inflections of the word. I.e. If a task is complex, then find the simplest way to handle the complexity -- but don't make the task less complex. E.g. building a car is a complex task, which has been made simpler and simpler over the years by people applying thought to processes and automation, and by improvements in technology -- but it would be pretty damned stupid to make the task simpler by removing all wheels from the design.

          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • B B Clay Shannon

            I saw Einstein's famous quote about the need for simplicity on slashdot today: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein ...but then realized that the quote itself as not as simple as possible, because the potentially simple sentence is complex - the ending clause is redundant, for if something is already as simple as possible, it's impossible to simplify it further. Was he of the wild hair pulling our leg?

            M Offline
            M Offline
            marie915
            wrote on last edited by
            #13

            Einstein was the first one without saying to first having believed to make known what some barely understood favets of the cosmic system possessed to the point to anuerism, taking knowledge from demons crashed in the forties in new mexico as an end times means to deceive as knowledge is already simple, but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

            U J T M 4 Replies Last reply
            0
            • M marie915

              Einstein was the first one without saying to first having believed to make known what some barely understood favets of the cosmic system possessed to the point to anuerism, taking knowledge from demons crashed in the forties in new mexico as an end times means to deceive as knowledge is already simple, but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

              U Offline
              U Offline
              U G Leander
              wrote on last edited by
              #14

              Aaaarrghhh!!!! Not again! MEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • B B Clay Shannon

                I saw Einstein's famous quote about the need for simplicity on slashdot today: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein ...but then realized that the quote itself as not as simple as possible, because the potentially simple sentence is complex - the ending clause is redundant, for if something is already as simple as possible, it's impossible to simplify it further. Was he of the wild hair pulling our leg?

                L Offline
                L Offline
                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #15

                No, he was not. He was merely saying that oversimplyfication is as bad as unneeded complexity.

                The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
                This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
                "I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • M marie915

                  Einstein was the first one without saying to first having believed to make known what some barely understood favets of the cosmic system possessed to the point to anuerism, taking knowledge from demons crashed in the forties in new mexico as an end times means to deceive as knowledge is already simple, but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

                  J Offline
                  J Offline
                  jeron1
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #16

                  marie915 wrote:

                  but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

                  How does one get that from 'sssssssssss'?

                  "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

                  T 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • M marie915

                    Einstein was the first one without saying to first having believed to make known what some barely understood favets of the cosmic system possessed to the point to anuerism, taking knowledge from demons crashed in the forties in new mexico as an end times means to deceive as knowledge is already simple, but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

                    T Offline
                    T Offline
                    TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #17

                    WTF are you smoking?

                    #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • J jeron1

                      marie915 wrote:

                      but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

                      How does one get that from 'sssssssssss'?

                      "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

                      T Offline
                      T Offline
                      TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #18

                      jeron1 wrote:

                      'sssssssssss'

                      It's all in the variable frequency and intonation of 's'

                      #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

                      J 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • T TheGreatAndPowerfulOz

                        jeron1 wrote:

                        'sssssssssss'

                        It's all in the variable frequency and intonation of 's'

                        #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        jeron1
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #19

                        Ahh that very well may explain why I failed Serpent in school! :laugh:

                        "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • M marie915

                          Einstein was the first one without saying to first having believed to make known what some barely understood favets of the cosmic system possessed to the point to anuerism, taking knowledge from demons crashed in the forties in new mexico as an end times means to deceive as knowledge is already simple, but relativity is the idea there is no set right and wrong, just like the serpent said in the garden

                          M Offline
                          M Offline
                          Mark_Wallace
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #20

                          I live in the Netherlands, but even the stuff that's legal here doesn't result in people talking the guff you're spouting.

                          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                          M 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • M Mark_Wallace

                            I live in the Netherlands, but even the stuff that's legal here doesn't result in people talking the guff you're spouting.

                            I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Mycroft Holmes
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #21

                            You know the crap at the end of spam, this guy is the author!

                            Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • B B Clay Shannon

                              I saw Einstein's famous quote about the need for simplicity on slashdot today: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein ...but then realized that the quote itself as not as simple as possible, because the potentially simple sentence is complex - the ending clause is redundant, for if something is already as simple as possible, it's impossible to simplify it further. Was he of the wild hair pulling our leg?

                              M Offline
                              M Offline
                              Marc Clifton
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #22

                              B. Clay Shannon wrote:

                              the ending clause is redundant,

                              Because some people try to make things too simple. Management, for example, when in their simple mind, something should be doable in a day, when it actually takes weeks or months. But what he's really getting at is the balance between complexity and simplicity. It's the balance we all face as programmers and some of us are totally ignorant of. VB / Javascript / Ruby / Python / et al. programmer: cut and paste the code Everyone else: Oh, I'm about to duplicate this code, let me make a function. VB / Javascript / Ruby / Python / et al. programmer: Wow, look at my cool function, it's 10000 lines long! Everyone else: Ew, this is getting gross, let me break this apart so it's readable and self-documenting. And so forth. Marc

                              Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Contributors Wanted for Higher Order Programming Project! Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • D den2k88

                                Please... Obfuscation newbie-style is far more advanced. In high school a (female, good-loking) classmate asked me for help for the laboratory classwork. Leaving apart the fact that there were over 40 variables and the task was trivial - they were named... A, B, C, D, E ... AA, AB, AC... Of course without comments or anything. More obfuscated than THAT? Her brain.

                                GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani

                                K Offline
                                K Offline
                                kalberts
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #23

                                When I was as Comp.Sci student, one of the professors was really pushing 'descriptive variable names' to the extreme. I happened to look over the shoulder of the brightest guy in our class while he was working on a programming homework: His integer variables were named I00, I01, I02, ..., reals were R00, R01, ... and so on. I was shocked: "Do you really think Prof. C will accept that?" "Oh, no", he replied, "Before I hand it in to Prof C., I will do a textual substitute, replacing all I01s with 'NumberOfOilCans', all R04s with 'WeightOfEachCanWhenEpty' and so on. But I couldn't possibly work with that kind of names - think of all that extra typing, how long that would take!" His mental capacity was so that he didn't need any 'descriptive names' - he could easily map from R04 to the concept of WeightOfEachCanWhenEmpty without any visual reminder. Descriptive names are for people with less mental capacity :-) The only negative thing about his style is that after making his substitutions, the code lines would be 100, maybe 120, maybe 130 characters long. (When substituting, he used really long descriptive names). End-of-line comments would of course end up mis-aligned - but this was in the Fortran days when EOL-comments were non-standard.

                                D K P 3 Replies Last reply
                                0
                                • K kalberts

                                  When I was as Comp.Sci student, one of the professors was really pushing 'descriptive variable names' to the extreme. I happened to look over the shoulder of the brightest guy in our class while he was working on a programming homework: His integer variables were named I00, I01, I02, ..., reals were R00, R01, ... and so on. I was shocked: "Do you really think Prof. C will accept that?" "Oh, no", he replied, "Before I hand it in to Prof C., I will do a textual substitute, replacing all I01s with 'NumberOfOilCans', all R04s with 'WeightOfEachCanWhenEpty' and so on. But I couldn't possibly work with that kind of names - think of all that extra typing, how long that would take!" His mental capacity was so that he didn't need any 'descriptive names' - he could easily map from R04 to the concept of WeightOfEachCanWhenEmpty without any visual reminder. Descriptive names are for people with less mental capacity :-) The only negative thing about his style is that after making his substitutions, the code lines would be 100, maybe 120, maybe 130 characters long. (When substituting, he used really long descriptive names). End-of-line comments would of course end up mis-aligned - but this was in the Fortran days when EOL-comments were non-standard.

                                  D Offline
                                  D Offline
                                  den2k88
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #24

                                  Both are good for code that won't be used ever after. You just gave me a terrible idea: if I'll ever teach, I will make the students work on their code of 2-3 months before. THAT will teach them the importance of code readability :D

                                  GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani

                                  K 2 Replies Last reply
                                  0
                                  • D den2k88

                                    Both are good for code that won't be used ever after. You just gave me a terrible idea: if I'll ever teach, I will make the students work on their code of 2-3 months before. THAT will teach them the importance of code readability :D

                                    GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani

                                    K Offline
                                    K Offline
                                    kalberts
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #25

                                    When I was teaching computer network software to last-year college students, I made myself the hate object of the year when I organized the group programming assignment in four stages throughout the full semester course: After each stage, each group handed their work over to another group, and were given another group's work as a base for the next stage. Students hated revealing their own deficiencies to fellow students, and they hated having to struggle with that terrible code written by their completely incomptetent fellow students... Telling them that in a few months, this would be the normal working situation for them didn't really make it. I have no regrets, even though the students hated me for it. An essential element in learning to code is learning to handle code from other programmers, and to make your own code so good that there is no reason to feel ashamed, no matter who reads it - both in plain readability and in other quality aspects.

                                    D 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • K kalberts

                                      When I was teaching computer network software to last-year college students, I made myself the hate object of the year when I organized the group programming assignment in four stages throughout the full semester course: After each stage, each group handed their work over to another group, and were given another group's work as a base for the next stage. Students hated revealing their own deficiencies to fellow students, and they hated having to struggle with that terrible code written by their completely incomptetent fellow students... Telling them that in a few months, this would be the normal working situation for them didn't really make it. I have no regrets, even though the students hated me for it. An essential element in learning to code is learning to handle code from other programmers, and to make your own code so good that there is no reason to feel ashamed, no matter who reads it - both in plain readability and in other quality aspects.

                                      D Offline
                                      D Offline
                                      den2k88
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #26

                                      You have ALL my respect! :thumbsup: Also, a teacher can be hated for two reason: either he's incompetent or he's evil. Evil teachers are the only ones that really teach anything.

                                      GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • B B Clay Shannon

                                        I saw Einstein's famous quote about the need for simplicity on slashdot today: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein ...but then realized that the quote itself as not as simple as possible, because the potentially simple sentence is complex - the ending clause is redundant, for if something is already as simple as possible, it's impossible to simplify it further. Was he of the wild hair pulling our leg?

                                        P Offline
                                        P Offline
                                        Paulo_JCG
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #27

                                        Quote:

                                        “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter." (Letter 16, 1657)” ― Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

                                        Probably Einstein had the same issue :-D

                                        Paulo Gomes Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight. —Bill Gates

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • K kalberts

                                          When I was as Comp.Sci student, one of the professors was really pushing 'descriptive variable names' to the extreme. I happened to look over the shoulder of the brightest guy in our class while he was working on a programming homework: His integer variables were named I00, I01, I02, ..., reals were R00, R01, ... and so on. I was shocked: "Do you really think Prof. C will accept that?" "Oh, no", he replied, "Before I hand it in to Prof C., I will do a textual substitute, replacing all I01s with 'NumberOfOilCans', all R04s with 'WeightOfEachCanWhenEpty' and so on. But I couldn't possibly work with that kind of names - think of all that extra typing, how long that would take!" His mental capacity was so that he didn't need any 'descriptive names' - he could easily map from R04 to the concept of WeightOfEachCanWhenEmpty without any visual reminder. Descriptive names are for people with less mental capacity :-) The only negative thing about his style is that after making his substitutions, the code lines would be 100, maybe 120, maybe 130 characters long. (When substituting, he used really long descriptive names). End-of-line comments would of course end up mis-aligned - but this was in the Fortran days when EOL-comments were non-standard.

                                          K Offline
                                          K Offline
                                          Kirk 10389821
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #28

                                          Ah, Fortran... Where we remember this phrase: God is Real, unless declared otherwise!!!

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups