Brian Kernighan, w:Rob Pike (1984), The UNIX programming environment publisher: Prentice-Hall, ISBN: 0139376992, OCLN: 10269821, p. 204.
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Ken Thompson was once asked what he would do differently if he were redesigning the UNIX system. His reply: "I'd spell creat with an e."

— Brian Kernighan on Ken Thompson

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Ken Thompson was once asked what he would do differently if he were redesigning the UNIX system. His reply: "I'd spell creat with an e."" in the context of "Brian Kernighan, w:Rob Pike (1984), The UNIX programming environment publisher: Prentice-Hall, ISBN: 0139376992, OCLN: 10269821, p. 204." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Ken Thompson" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Brian Kernighan

About Brian Kernighan

Brian Wilson Kernighan (born January 1, 1942) is a computer scientist who worked at the Bell Labs and contributed to the design of the pioneering AWK and AMPL programming languages. He is most well-known for his co-authorship, with Dennis Ritchie, of the first book on the C programming language.