“Part of language design is perturbing the proposed feature in various directions to see how it might generalize in the future.”
[199709032332.QAA21669@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997
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Larry Wall 294
American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl 1954Related quotes

The Law of Mind (1892)
Context: One of the most marked features about the law of mind is that it makes time to have a definite direction of flow from past to future.... This makes one of the great contrasts between the law of mind and the law of physical force, where there is no more distinction between the two opposite directions in time than between moving northward and moving southward.

§5.4
Notation as a Tool of Thought (1979)

"Acquisition and use of language"
Quotes 2000s, 2007-09, (3rd ed., 2009)

[1994Jun15.074039.2654@netlabs.com, 1994]
Usenet postings, 1994

1860s, On a Piece of Chalk (1868)
Source: In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action, (2013), p. 372