"Whenever I gave even a moment's thought to whether I needed to learn compilers, I'd think: I would need to know how compilers work in one of two scenarios. The first scenario is that I go work at Microsoft and somehow wind up in the Visual C++ group. Then I'd need to know how compilers work. The second scenario is that the urge suddenly comes upon me to grow a long beard and stop showering and make a pilgrimage to MIT where I beg Richard Stallman to let me live in a cot in some hallway and work on GCC with him like some sort of Jesuit vagabond."
"Both scenarios seemed pretty unlikely to me at the time, although if push came to shove, a cot and beard didn't seem all that bad compared to working at Microsoft."
"Whenever I gave even a moment's thought to whether I needed to learn compilers, I'd think: I would need to know how compilers work in one of two scenarios. The first scenario is that I go work at Microsoft and somehow wind up in the Visual C++ group. Then I'd need to know how compilers work. The second scenario is that the urge suddenly comes upon me to grow a long beard and stop showering and make a pilgrimage to MIT where I beg Richard Stallman to let me live in a cot in some hallway and work on GCC with him like some sort of Jesuit vagabond."
"Both scenarios seemed pretty unlikely to me at the time, although if push came to shove, a cot and beard didn't seem all that bad compared to working at Microsoft."