WIST Quotations

Maciejewska, Joanna -- Twitter (2024-03-29)

Dave — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:01:08 +0000

I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.

Joanna Maciejewska (contemp.) Polish-Irish-American author
Twitter (2024-03-29)
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1931-09-06), “Weekly Article”

Dave — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 14:43:47 +0000

Machines are a great thing, but if one replaces a hundred men, it don’t buy anything, it don’t eat anything, while the hundred men spend theirs back for food, shelter, and hundreds of various commodities for them and their families.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1931-09-06), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

Abelson, Hal -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 13:54:55 +0000

What’s important is not just to develop the technology; it’s to develop the processes.

Hal Abelson (b. 1947) American mathematician, computer scientist, academic
(Attributed)

Steinbeck, John -- Travels With Charley: In Search of America, Part 2 (1962)

Dave — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:02:12 +0000

Even while I protest the assembly-line production of our food, our songs, our language, and eventually our souls, I know that it was a rare home that baked good bread in the old days. Mother’s cooking was with rare exceptions poor, that good unpasteurized milk touched only by flies and bits of manure crawled with bacteria, the healthy old-time life was riddled with aches, sudden death from unknown causes, and that sweet local speech I mourn was the child of illiteracy and ignorance. It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better.

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
Travels With Charley: In Search of America, Part 2 (1962)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1991)

Dave — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:27:08 +0000

I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1991)