Where Wizards Stay Up Late (1996) by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
“
He worked quietly for years as keeper of the RFCs and final arbiter in technical matters when consensus couldn’t be reached. Postel believed that decisions he had made in the course of his work over the years had been for the good of the community and that starting a company to profit from those activities would have amounted to a violation of public trust.
— Where Wizards Stay Up Late
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "He worked quietly for years as keeper of the RFCs and final arbiter in technical matters when consensus couldn’t be reached. Postel believed that decisions he had made in the course of his work over the years had been for the good of the community and that starting a company to profit from those activities would have amounted to a violation of public trust." in the context of "Where Wizards Stay Up Late (1996) by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Jon Postel" (About Jon Postel)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Tags
About Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel (August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American computer scientist. He was the first and longest-serving editor of the ARPANET (later Internet) RFC document series, and wrote or edited many of protocol standards still used in the Internet today.
About Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel (August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American computer scientist. He was the first and longest-serving editor of the ARPANET (later Internet) RFC document series, and wrote or edited many of protocol standards still used in the Internet today.
View all quotes →