“If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up” is a jocular one-line saying written by American computer scientist Alan Jay Perlis (1922-1990) in his “Epigrams on Programming,” published in ACM’s SIGPLAN Notices in September 1982. The saying has been popular with computer programmers, but has also been used in business.
Wikipedia: Alan Perlis
Alan Jay Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990) was an American computer scientist known for his pioneering work in programming languages and the first recipient of the Turing Award.
Herbert Klaeren
Epigrams on Programming
Alan J. Perlis
Yale University
This text has been published in SIGPLAN Notices Vol. 17, No. 9, September 1982, pages 7 - 13. I’m offering it here online until ACM stops me.
(...)
17. If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
Google Books
The Coevolution Quarterly
Issues 37-43
1983
Pg. 102:
If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
Google Books
Humour the Computer
Edited by Andrew Davison
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
1995
Pg. 18:
If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up.
Alan J. Perlis
Google Books
JavaSpaces Principles, Patterns, and Practice
By Eric Freeman, Susanne Hupfer and Ken Arnold
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
1999
Pg. 217:
If a listener nods his head when you ‘re explaining your program, wake him up. — Alan Perlis, Epigrams in Programming
Twitter
Linux Message of Day
@linux_motd
If a listener nods his head when you’re explaining your program, wake him up. #Linux
8:00 PM - 2 Nov 2014
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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