--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: One of the implicit principles of…" description: "\"“One of the implicit principles of computer science, as odd as it may sound, is that computation is bad: the underlying directive of any good algorithm..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg" --- # One of the implicit principles of computer science, as odd… ![“One of the implicit principles of computer science, as odd as it may sound, is that computation is bad: the underlying directive of any good algorithm is to minimize the labor of thought.” quote by Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg) > ““One of the implicit principles of computer science, as odd as it may sound, is that computation is bad: the underlying directive of any good algorithm is to minimize the labor of thought.”” [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Notes that computer science aims to reduce mental effort, making computation a tool to simplify thought. **In simple terms:** Computers aim to lessen mental work. Key Takeaway Leverage technology to think efficiently. Themes technology efficiency cognitive load Mood analytical thoughtful Type philosophical technical When to use this quote - software development - education - research labs Key Concepts algorithm design human‑computer interaction automation Questions to Reflect On - How can we balance automation with mental skill? - What tasks should remain human‑driven? A Different Perspective Over‑reliance may dull critical thinking. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Computation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/computation/) [Computation Bad](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/computation-bad-4974208/) [Computer science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/computer-science/) [Computers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/computers/) [Implicit Principles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/implicit-principles-4974209/) [Principles Computer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/principles-computer-4974210/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) ## Related quotes > [But biology and computer science - life and computation - are related. 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And unlike most advice, it’s backed up by proofs.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/living-by-the-wisdom-of-computer-science-doesn-t-sound-so-bad-after/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“It’s fairly intuitive that never exploring is no way to live. 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When it started out it was an awful lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-j-perlis/i-think-that-it-s-extraordinarily-important-that-we-in-computer-2/) [Alan J. Perlis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-j-perlis/) > [I went to Drexel University, majored in computer science. Drexel has a great program - they call it co-op - but its, like, mandatory…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-gruber/i-went-to-drexel-university-majored-in-computer-science-drexel-has-a/) [John Gruber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-gruber/) > [I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-perlis/i-think-that-it-s-extraordinarily-important-that-we-in-computer/) [Alan Perlis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-perlis/) > [Computer Science is a science of abstraction -creating the right model for a problem and devising the appropriate mechanizable techniques to solve it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-aho/computer-science-is-a-science-of-abstraction-creating-the-right-model/) [Alfred Aho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-aho/) > [I shopped at J. Crew in high school, I studied computer science. I was a nerd-nerd, now I'm a music-nerd.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mayer-hawthorne/i-shopped-at-j-crew-in-high-school-i-studied-computer-science-i-was-a/) [Mayer Hawthorne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mayer-hawthorne/) > [It's interesting that the greatest minds of computer science, the founding fathers, like Alan Turing and Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener, they all looked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/garry-kasparov/it-s-interesting-that-the-greatest-minds-of-computer-science-the/) [Garry Kasparov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/garry-kasparov/) > [Calculators can only calculate - they cannot do mathematics.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-a-van-de-walle/calculators-can-only-calculate-they-cannot-do-mathematics/) [John A. Van de Walle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-a-van-de-walle/) > [Fantastic truths perish slower... Sappho's moon will survive the moon of Armstrong. Different computations are necessary.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/odysseas-elytis/fantastic-truths-perish-slower-sappho-s-moon-will-survive-the-moon-of/) [Odysseas Elytis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/odysseas-elytis/) ## More by Brian Christian > [“Though all Christians start a wedding invitation by solemnly declaring their marriage is due to special Divine arrangement, I, as a philosopher, would like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/though-all-christians-start-a-wedding-invitation-by-solemnly/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“It’s fairly intuitive that never exploring is no way to live. But it’s also worth mentioning that never exploiting can be every bit as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/it-s-fairly-intuitive-that-never-exploring-is-no-way-to-live-but-it-s/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“Forrest Gander: "Maybe the best we can do is try to leave ourselves unprotected. To keep brushing off habits, how we see things and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/forrest-gander-maybe-the-best-we-can-do-is-try-to-leave-ourselves/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“We asked Shoup if his research allows him to optimize his own commute, through the Los Angeles traffic to his office at UCLA. Does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/we-asked-shoup-if-his-research-allows-him-to-optimize-his-own-commute/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“look no further than Peter A. Lawrence’s developmental biology text The Making of a Fly, which in April 2011 was selling for $23,698,655.93 (plus…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/look-no-further-than-peter-a-lawrence-s-developmental-biology-text/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“Though time management seems a problem as old as time itself, the science of scheduling began in the machine shops of the industrial revolution.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/though-time-management-seems-a-problem-as-old-as-time-itself-the/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“the math tells us why: the unknown has a chance of being better”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/the-math-tells-us-why-the-unknown-has-a-chance-of-being-better/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life. —JOHN STUART MILL”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/there-is-no-such-thing-as-absolute-certainty-but-there-is-assurance/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [Pleasantries are low entropy, biased so far that they stop being an earnest inquiry and become ritual. Ritual has its virtues, of course, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/pleasantries-are-low-entropy-biased-so-far-that-they-stop-being-an/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“What a familiarity with the construction of Turing test bots had begun to show me was that we fail - again and again- to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/what-a-familiarity-with-the-construction-of-turing-test-bots-had/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“We say “brain fart” when we should really say “cache miss.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/we-say-brain-fart-when-we-should-really-say-cache-miss/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“When our expectations are uncertain and the data are noisy, the best bet is to paint with a broad brush”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/when-our-expectations-are-uncertain-and-the-data-are-noisy-the-best/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“Computer scientists have been working on finding this balance for more than fifty years. They even have a name for it: the explore/exploit tradeoff.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/computer-scientists-have-been-working-on-finding-this-balance-for/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“We go through digital life, in the twenty-first century, with our guards up. All communication is a Turing test. All communication is suspect.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/we-go-through-digital-life-in-the-twenty-first-century-with-our/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) > [“exploration is gathering information, and exploitation is using the information”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/exploration-is-gathering-information-and-exploitation-is-using-the/) [Brian Christian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) [Explore all 67 Brian Christian quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/) ## More Computation quotes > [Fantastic truths perish slower... Sappho's moon will survive the moon of Armstrong. Different computations are necessary.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/odysseas-elytis/fantastic-truths-perish-slower-sappho-s-moon-will-survive-the-moon-of/) [Odysseas Elytis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/odysseas-elytis/) > [Calculators can only calculate - they cannot do mathematics.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-a-van-de-walle/calculators-can-only-calculate-they-cannot-do-mathematics/) [John A. Van de Walle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-a-van-de-walle/) > [ALGEBRA is a general Method of Computation by certain Signs and Symbols which have been contrived for this Purpose, and found convenient.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-maclaurin/algebra-is-a-general-method-of-computation-by-certain-signs-and/) [Colin Maclaurin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-maclaurin/) > [Can you make fancy patterns of water that actually have some computation power? I'm betting that fluids are complex enough to do this.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terence-tao/can-you-make-fancy-patterns-of-water-that-actually-have-some/) [Terence Tao](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terence-tao/) > [If you roll dice, you know that the odds are one in six that the dice will come up on a particular side. So…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nassim-nicholas-taleb/if-you-roll-dice-you-know-that-the-odds-are-one-in-six-that-the-dice/) [Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nassim-nicholas-taleb/) > [If we suppose that many natural phenomena are in effect computations, the study of computer science can tell us about the kinds of natural…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rudy-rucker/if-we-suppose-that-many-natural-phenomena-are-in-effect-computations/) [Rudy Rucker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rudy-rucker/) > [The term, information at your fingertips, is to remind people what a broad role the personal computer will be playing. It's not a computation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-gates/the-term-information-at-your-fingertips-is-to-remind-people-what-a/) [Bill Gates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-gates/) > [Some things, like the orbits of the planets, can be calculated far into the future. But that's atypical. In most contexts, there is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-rees/some-things-like-the-orbits-of-the-planets-can-be-calculated-far-into/) [Martin Rees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-rees/) > [There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winston-churchill/there-is-something-going-on-in-time-and-space-and-beyond-time-and/) [Winston Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winston-churchill/) > [To me quantum computation is a new and deeper and better way to understand the laws of physics, and hence understanding physical reality as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-deutsch/to-me-quantum-computation-is-a-new-and-deeper-and-better-way-to/) [David Deutsch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-deutsch/) > [I have tried to avoid long numerical computations, thereby following Riemann's postulate that proofs should be given through ideas and not voluminous computations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hilbert/i-have-tried-to-avoid-long-numerical-computations-thereby-following/) [David Hilbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hilbert/) > [The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Computations using the science of probability on just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fritz-ridenour/the-old-testament-contains-over-300-references-to-the-messiah-that/) [Fritz Ridenour](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fritz-ridenour/) > [“Whew, this might be getting a bit confusing. I hope you are following me so far. This is the point in every Theory of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/melanie-mitchell/whew-this-might-be-getting-a-bit-confusing-i-hope-you-are-following/) [Melanie Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/melanie-mitchell/) > [“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/mathematics-is-not-about-numbers-equations-computations-or-algorithms/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind is no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hermann-hesse/people-know-or-dimly-feel-that-if-thinking-is-not-kept-pure-and-keen/) [Hermann Hesse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hermann-hesse/) [Browse all 88 Computation quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/computation/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“One of the implicit principles of computer science, as odd as it may sound, is that computation is bad: the underlying directive of any good algorithm is to minimize the labor of thought.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brian Christian" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-computer-science-as-odd-as-it-may/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Computation" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-computer-science-as-odd-as-it-may/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fa/brian-christian-10142_computer-science_one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-comput_2223790.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“One of the implicit principles of computer science, as odd as it may sound, is that computation is bad: the…” — Brian Christian", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Brian Christian", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-christian/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“One of the implicit principles of...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-computer-science-as-odd-as-it-may/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-christian/one-of-the-implicit-principles-of-computer-science-as-odd-as-it-may/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```