Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your amusement, two quotations which I find myself thinking of entirely too often during the course of my daily employment.
The first is from Mr. Charles Babbage, whom I have ultimately to thank for both my lucrative employment, and also for much of the pain of my existence.
On two occasions I have been asked,–“Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?”
In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
I am sincerely contemplating binding “I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question” to some sort of global shortcut hotkey, so that I can just insert it into all kind of appropriate messages and documents with a single keystroke.
This would also be useful for dealing with all kinds of friends-and-family computer problems.
The second quotation comes from Wolfgang Pauli, and is presented without further comment:
This isn’t right. This isn’t even wrong.
Cite
(Oh, and speaking of my employment, I see my employer issued a press release today about how the company is out of jail, or done parole, or whatever metaphor you like for the situation.)
