Cost Quote by Alan Perlis
“LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing.”
About This Quote
Highlights the paradox where LISP developers understand the importance of values but overlook performance costs, reflecting a bias toward abstraction over efficiency.
In simple terms: Abstraction vs. performance trade‑off
Key Takeaway
Beware of ignoring runtime costs
Themes
programming philosophy
software engineering
performance awareness
abstraction
cognitive bias
Mood
reflective
wry
critical
Type
humorous
observational
When to use this quote
- optimizing legacy code
- choosing a language for a new project
- educational curriculum design
- performance profiling
- team code reviews
Key Concepts
LISP
value semantics
cost of computation
software design
Practical Applications
- educating developers about trade‑offs
- guiding language selection decisions
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you balance elegance and efficiency?
- When should you prioritize performance over readability?
![“[Photography is ] likewise even French impressionists. So the Sculls bought pop. It was politics, and they moved with it. And I think that could be happening, to some degree, with photography, too. It doesn't cost as much to do it, either.” quote by Garry Winogrand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2eb/garry-winogrand-2342_cost_photography-is-likewise-even-french-impr_2802.jpg)
