Edsger W. Dijkstra, "How do we tell truths that might hurt?" (1975). Published in ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17:5 (May 1982), pp. 13–15.
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About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra on Programming languages
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead." in the context of "Edsger W. Dijkstra, "How do we tell truths that might hurt?" (1975). Published in ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17:5 (May 1982), pp. 13–15." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Programming languages" (Quotes: Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author, A - F)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Edsger W. Dijkstra
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, programmer, software engineer, and science essayist.
About Edsger W. Dijkstra
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, programmer, software engineer, and science essayist.
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