“The life-efficiency and adaptability of the computer must be questioned. Its judicious use depends upon the availability of its human employers quite literally to keep their own heads, not merely to scrutinize the programming but to reserve for themselves the right of ultimate decision. No automatic system can be intelligently run byautomatonsor by people who dare not assert human intuition, human autonomy, human purpose.” PeopleHumansUseRunningPurposeDecisionDependsComputerUltimateDareIntuitionProgrammingReservesEfficiencyAutonomyEmployersAdaptabilityAvailabilityScrutinize Author:Lewis Mumford
“The practice of first developing a clear and precise definition of a process without regard for efficiency, and then using it as a guide and a test in exploring equivalent processes possessing other characteristics, such as greater efficiency, is very common in mathematics. It is a very fruitful practice which should not be blighted by premature emphasis on efficiency in computer execution.” ShouldFirstsProcessCommonPracticeClearGreaterComputerTestsRegardMathematicsDefinitionsGuidesDevelopingCharacteristicsExecutionEfficiencyExploringPreciseEmphasisPossessingPremature Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“Overemphasis of efficiency leads to an unfortunate circularity in design: for reasons of efficiency early programming languages reflected the characteristics of the early computers, and each generation of computers reflects the needs of the programming languages of the preceding generation.” NeedsReasonLanguageGenerationsDesignComputerCharacteristicsProgrammingUnfortunateEfficiencyProgramming LanguagesCircularity Author:Kenneth E. Iverson
“I am confident that we can do better than GUIs because the basic problem with them (and with the Linux and Unix interfaces) is that they ask a human being to do things that we know experimentally humans cannot do well. The question I asked myself is, given everything we know about how the human mind works, could we design a computer and computer software so that we can work with the least confusion and greatest efficiency?” KnowsMindHumansWellsProblemAsksGivenCan DoHuman BeingsDesignComputerConfusionHuman MindSoftwareEfficiencyLinuxInterfacesUnixComputer Software Author:Jef Raskin
“It all depends on what I'm working on and if there is a deadline involved. Anything that's headed toward a magazine or newspaper is hacked out on the computer; that's a matter of efficiency. I write longer pieces of prose on a typewriter because the act of retyping it for the computer is a useful tactic for revision. Poems tend to be written longhand.” IfsWritingMatterPiecesWrittenDependsInvolvedComputerNewspapersMagazinesProseEfficiencyTacticsDeadlineTypewritersRevisionHacked Author:Kevin Keck