“It's easy to solve the halting problem with a shotgun.”

—  Larry Wall

[199801151836.KAA14656@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It's easy to solve the halting problem with a shotgun." by Larry Wall?
Larry Wall photo
Larry Wall 294
American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl 1954

Related quotes

Buckminster Fuller photo

“A problem adequately stated is a problem solved theoretically and immediately, and therefore subsequently to be solved, realistically.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

World Design Science Decade 1965-1975 Phase I (1965), Document 3 : Comprehensive Thinking, "Venus Proximity Day", p. 33 http://challenge.bfi.org/sites/challenge.bfi.org/files/pdf_files/wdsd_phase1_doc3.pdf
1960s
Context: One of my working assumptions which has been proven successful so often as seemingly to qualify it as a reliable tenet is that A problem adequately stated is a problem solved theoretically and immediately, and therefore subsequently to be solved, realistically. Others have probably stated the principle in many ways. The assumption is that the inevitability of a solution's realization is inherent in the interaction of human intellect and the constantly transformative evolution of physical universe. At first the, only subconsciously apprehended, approaching confluences of complex events make themselves known intuitively within the intellectual weather. Then comes a gradually awakening consciousness of the presence of new families of differentiating-out challenging concepts of every day prominence. It is with these randomly patterning families of separate concepts that evolution is about to deal integratively. As a now specific unitary problem it may be disposed of effectively when and if that unified problem becomes "adequately stated" and thereby comprehensibly solvable.

George Pólya photo

“If you cannot solve the proposed problem, try to solve first a simpler related problem.”

George Pólya (1887–1985) Hungarian mathematician

Mathematical Methods in Science (1977), p.164

Šantidéva photo
René Descartes photo
Raymond E. Feist photo

“Life is problems. Living is solving problems.”

Source: Silverthorn

Joseph Stalin photo

“Death solves all problems — no man, no problem.”

Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

This actually comes from the novel Children of the Arbat (1987) by Anatoly Rybakov. In his later book The Novel of Memories ( In Russian http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/auth_pages.xtmpl?Key=18637&page=307) Rybakov admitted that he had no sources for such a statement.
Misattributed

Karl Pilkington photo

“Any problem solved is a new problem made.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

Podcast Series 5 Episode 1
On Life

“We cannot solve life's problems except by solving them.”

M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist

Source: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth

Related topics