Radia Perlman
Often called the 'Mother of the Internet' for her invention of the Spanning Tree Protocol.
Most quoted
"We build systems that are incredibly complex, and then we're surprised when they fail. It's like building a house of cards and being surprised when it falls down."
— from Conference talk
"The Internet is a testament to the fact that if you give people enough rope, they'll hang themselves... and then complain about the rope."
— from Talk/Presentation
"The Spanning Tree Protocol is a testament to the fact that you can't always get what you want, but you can always get what you need."
— from Various interviews and talks
All quotes by Radia Perlman (341)
We need to think about the long-term consequences of our technological choices.
I enjoy the intellectual sparring that comes with good engineering discussions.
My work is about building bridges, not walls.
I believe in the power of a well-designed protocol.
The most important thing is to keep asking 'why'.
I'm a bit of a Luddite. I think technology should be invisible.
The Internet is a wonderful thing, but it's also a terrible thing.
If you want to build a secure system, you have to assume that everyone is out to get you.
The problem with the Internet is that it's too easy to connect things that shouldn't be connected.
I'm not a visionary. I just fix things that are broken.
The biggest challenge in computer science is not building new things, but making existing things work together.
Security is not a product, it's a process.
The Internet was designed for robustness, not for security.
I think the most important thing is to make technology understandable to people.
If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Unless it's a really complicated mousetrap.
The Internet is like a giant distributed operating system, but without a central administrator.
My goal is to make things simple, not simplistic.
The biggest mistake we made with the Internet was not thinking about security from the beginning.
I'm not a fan of complexity for complexity's sake.
The Internet is a testament to the power of open standards.
Contemporaries of Radia Perlman
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Radia Perlman (1951).