I am a computer scientist and mathematician who devised the theory of machine-independent programming languages, built the compiler technology behind FLOW-MATIC and COBOL, and wrote the first computer manual.
The person outside the work — what they're learning and tinkering with.
When generals and admirals asked why satellite communication took so long, I handed out pieces of wire just under a foot long — the distance light travels in a nanosecond — and later used them to show why computers must be small to be fast.
I trained as a mathematician — a Vassar degree in mathematics and physics in 1928, a Yale PhD in 1934 under Øystein Ore — and taught mathematics at Vassar from 1931, the foundation I brought to programming.
I rank training young people as my most important accomplishment after building the compiler: when they ask whether they can do something, I say "Try it," back them up, and keep stirring them to take chances.
