Linus Torvalds (2000-05-02), Post to fa.linux.kernel newsgroup, retrieved: 2006-08-28

Note that nobody reads every post in linux-kernel. In fact, nobody who expects to have time left over to actually do any real kernel work will read even half. Except Alan Cox, but he's actually not human, but about a thousand gnomes working in under-ground caves in Swansea. None of the individual gnomes read all the postings either, they just work together really well.

— Linus Torvalds on Gnomes

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Note that nobody reads every post in linux-kernel. In fact, nobody who expects to have time left over to actually do any real kernel work will read even half. Except Alan Cox, but he's actually not human, but about a thousand gnomes working in under-ground caves in Swansea. None of the individual gnomes read all the postings either, they just work together really well." in the context of "Linus Torvalds (2000-05-02), Post to fa.linux.kernel newsgroup, retrieved: 2006-08-28" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Gnomes" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Linus Torvalds

About Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds (born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish-American computer programmer, best known as the creator of the Linux kernel.