"Start out with a problem that needs solving, rather than starting out with a technology."

Technology

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Technology as articulated by Radia Perlman. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Technology provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Radia Perlman

Radia Joy Perlman is an American computer programmer and network engineer. She is a major figure in assembling the networks and technology to enable what we now know as the Internet. She is most famous for her invention of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which is fundamental to the operation of network bridges, while working for Digital Equipment Corporation. Her innovations have made a huge impact on how networks self-organize and move data. She also made large contributions to many other areas of network design and standardization – for example, enabling today's link-state routing protocols to be more robust, scalable, and easy to manage.

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More by Radia Perlman

"The world would be a better place if more engineers, like me, hated technology."

— Radia Perlman
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More about Technology

"I received my undergraduate degree in engineering in 1939 and a Master of Science degree in mathematical physics in 1941 at Steven Institute of Technology."

— Frederick Reines
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"Thompson and Ritchie were among the first to realize that hardware and compiler technology had become good enough that an entire operating system could be written in C, and by 1978 the whole environment had been successfully ported to several machines of different types."

— Eric S. Raymond
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"It is the child's understanding that teaches the adults the way of the future. They're still doing it today with modern technology."

— Michael Morpurgo
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"Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important."

— Bill Gates
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