Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.
Edsger DijkstraRead
I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the difference between excellence and perfection, suggesting that the pursuit of perfection should not be rooted in competition.
Edsger Dijkstra points out a crucial distinction between excellence and perfection, arguing that the current trend centers around the concept of excellence, which inherently fosters competition. He asserts that instead of striving for excellence, we should aim for perfection, which should be a personal or collective endeavor rather than a competitive one. This perspective encourages individuals and teams to focus on their own improvement without being influenced by comparative outcomes with others.
Themes
ExcellencePerfectionCompetitionSpiritNotion
In practice
Example use cases
During a team meeting on project goals, I could use this quote to emphasize the importance of striving for perfection over merely achieving excellence.
More from Edsger Dijkstra
All quotes →Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
Edsger DijkstraRead
The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.
Edsger DijkstraRead
We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers.
Edsger DijkstraRead
The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities.
Edsger DijkstraRead
LISP has jokingly been described as "the most intelligent way to misuse a computer." I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavour of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
Edsger DijkstraRead
Similar quotes
Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.
D.T. SuzukiRead
More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.
Samuel JohnsonRead
It's bad taste to be wise all the time, like being at a perpetual funeral.
D. H. LawrenceRead
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
John MiltonRead
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.
EpicurusRead
Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.
Adam GrantRead