Mastodon Feed: Post

Mastodon Feed

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
Roundtrip@federate.social ("Greg Lloyd") wrote:

@dysfun 🧵#Dijkstra #quote

So great — thank you! I had to dig up the source:

Dijkstra, E.W. “Introducing a Course on Calculi.” EWD1213, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 30 Aug 1995.

https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EWD1213.html

I think it wise, and only honest, to warn you that my goal is immodest. It is not my purpose to “transfer knowledge” to you that, subsequently, you can forget again. My purpose is no less than to effectuate in each of you a noticeable, irreversable change. I want you to see and absorb calculational arguments so effective that you will never be able to forget that exposure. I want you to gain, for the rest of your lives, the insight that beautiful proofs are not “found” by trial and error but are the result of a consciously applied design discipline. I want to inspire you to raise your quality standards. I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself “Dijkstra would not have liked this.”, well, that would be enough immortality for me. Your obligation is that of active participation. You should not act as knowledge-absorbing sponges, but as whetstones on which we can all sharpen our wits. If you don’t understand me, ask for clarification; if I am going too fast, slow me down. (If I am going too slow, you may try to speed me up, e.g. by yawning?) Finally, don’t expect me to motivate you, but during “office hours” I would like to get personally acquainted with you. Austin, 30 August 1995 prof.dr. Edsger W. Dijkstra Department of Computer Sciences The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78750 - 8138 USA Dijkstra, E.W. “Introducing a Course on Calculi.” EWD1213