Computer Quote by John Drury Clark
““And there is one disconcerting thing about working with a computer – it's likely to talk back to you. You make some tiny mistake in your FORTRAN language – putting a letter in the wrong column, say, or omitting a comma – and the 360 comes to a screeching halt and prints out rude remarks, like "ILLEGAL FORMAT," or "UNKNOWN PROBLEM," or, if the man who wrote the program was really feeling nasty that morning, "WHAT'S THE MATTER STUPID? CAN'T YOU READ?" Everyone who uses a computer frequently has had, from time to time, a mad desire to attack the precocious abacus with an axe.””
About This Quote
Source Speech: Interview on early computing, 1960s
Computers can be unforgiving, responding with harsh error messages that feel personal, highlighting the frustration programmers feel when small mistakes cause big failures.
In simple terms: Computers give angry error messages for tiny mistakes.
Key Takeaway
Expect and handle errors calmly.
Themes
technology
frustration
programming
Mood
irustrated
reflective
Type
technical
humorous
When to use this quote
- software development
- learning programming
- debugging
- teaching coding
Key Concepts
human-computer interaction
error handling
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we design more user‑friendly error feedback?
- What strategies help maintain patience during debugging?
A Different Perspective
Error messages can be unhelpful and demotivating.
