“The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.”
Page 17, cf. Theodore von Kármán (1957): "Everyone knows it takes a woman nine months to have a baby. But you Americans think if you get nine women pregnant, you can have a baby in a month."
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975, 1995)
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Fred Brooks 20
American computer scientist 1931Related quotes
November 1957 - Told to Joseph G. Martin, then Aide-de-Camp to Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Hooks, as Lt. Martin escorted Dr. von Kármán from New York City to lead a secret symposium on space flight in Cloudcroft, NM. Sputnik had been launched a month before and every branch of the US military had a separate space program and were desperately trying to get off a successful launch.
The Life and Times of Joe Gordon (To the Best of My Recollection) by Joseph G. Martin (self published, 2007)
“You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002), Chapter 12
Context: Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through, is now like something from the distant past. We're so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past, like ancient stars that have burned out, are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about every day, too many new things we have to learn. New styles, new information, new technology, new terminology... But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone. And for me, what happened in the woods that day is one of these.
“Nine, nine… There have been nine men there for a long, long time, right? So why not nine women?”
In response to the question “How many women would be enough” [on the Supreme Court] during interview https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/chat-women-supreme-court-11976773 with Diane Sawyer at The Women’s Conference (Long Beach, California, October 26, 2010)
“How many of you have broken no laws this month?”
As quoted in a speech http://www.toad.com/gnu/cfp.talk.txt to the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy in 1991
“Women receive easily the most difficult assignments.”
Te naiset, te naiset: Sitaatteja vain naisilta (Ed. Laine Jarkko; Jung Irmeli) Otava 2006 In Finnish: Naisille annetaan helposti vaikeimmat tehtävät (translated)