“The problems for which I could find no solution in fact had no solution.”
Source: The Eternal Champion (1970), Chapter 23 “In Loos Ptokai” (p. 137)
“A novice had a problem and could not find a solution. "I know," said the novice, "I'll just use Perl!" The novice now had two problems.”
Re: How is perl braindamaged? (was Re: Is LISP dying?) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/37b0ddc2524a8214 (Usenet article)
Paraphrasing Jamie Zawinski, and also formulated as "The unemployed programmer had a problem. 'I know,' said the programmer, 'I'll just learn Perl.' The unemployed programmer now had two problems." in his famous "Perl treatise", Re: can lisp do what perl does easily? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/fc76ebab1cb2f863 (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Perl
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "A novice had a problem and could not find a solution. "I know," said the novice, "I'll just use Perl!" The novice now h…" by Erik Naggum?
Erik Naggum 118
Norwegian computer programmer 1965–2009Related quotes
Jamie Zawinski
(1968) American programmer
alt.religion.emacs http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=33F0C496.370D7C45%40netscape.com (lost; recovered http://regex.info/blog/2006-09-15/247)
Attributed
“If Perl is the solution, you're solving the wrong problem.”
Erik Naggum
(1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer
Re: Q: on hashes and counting (Usenet article) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/ba0447f11766db41.
Usenet articles, Perl
“One solution to one problem makes two problems.”
Eugene J. Martin
(1938–2005) American artist
Annotated Drawings by Eugene J. Martin: 1977-1978
Albert Einstein
(1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
There is no indication that Einstein said this. According to Quote Investigator, the earliest publication of a quote similar was in a collection of articles about manufacturing in 1966, when an employee of the Stainless Processing Company wrote a piece titled "The Manufacturing Manager's Skills." The article attributed the quote to an unnamed professor at Yale, by saying, "If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour in attempting to define what the problem is." (See, 1966, The Manufacturing Man and His Job by Robert E. Finley and Henry R. Ziobro, "The Manufacturing Manager's Skills" by William H. Markle (Vice President, Stainless Processing Company, Chicago, Illinois), Start Page 15, Quote Page 18, Published by American Management Association, Inc., New York. Verified on paper). https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/22/solve/
Disputed
Variant: If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
Jack McDevitt
(1935) American novelist, Short story writer
Source: Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Chindi (2002), Chapter 31 (p. 432)
Robert H. Jackson
(1892–1954) American judge
Advocacy Before the Supreme Court: Suggestions for Effective Case Presentations, 37 A.B.A Journal 801 (1951)