Much of my work has come from being lazy. I didn't like writing programs, and so, when I was working on the IBM 701 (an early computer), writing programs for computing missile trajectories, I started work on a programming system… — John Backus Copy Share Image
You need the willingness to fail all the time. You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard only… — John Backus Copy Share
They don't like thinking in medical school. They memorize - that's all they want you to do. You must not think. — John Backus Copy Share
Von Neumann languages do not have useful properties for reasoning about programs. Axiomatic and denotational semantics are precise tools for describing and understanding conventional… — John Backus Copy Share
Much of my work has come from being lazy. I didn't like writing programs, and so, when I was working on the IBM 701… — John Backus Copy Share
I, myself, have had many failures and I've learned that if you are not failing a lot, you are probably not being as creative… — John Backus Copy Share
