Ken Thompson, "Reflections on Trusting Trust", 1983 Turing Award Lecture , Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763.
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The press, television, and movies make heroes of vandals by calling them whiz kids. ... There is obviously a cultural gap. The act of breaking into a computer system has to have the same social stigma as breaking into a neighbor's house. It should not matter that the neighbor's door is unlocked.
— Ken Thompson on Social stigma
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The press, television, and movies make heroes of vandals by calling them whiz kids. ... There is obviously a cultural gap. The act of breaking into a computer system has to have the same social stigma as breaking into a neighbor's house. It should not matter that the neighbor's door is unlocked." in the context of "Ken Thompson, "Reflections on Trusting Trust", 1983 Turing Award Lecture , Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Social stigma" (Quotes)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Ken Thompson
Kenneth Lane Thompson (born 4 February 1943) is a computer scientist and winner of the 1983 Turing Award, together with Dennis Ritchie. He is notable for his work on the Unix operating system.
About Ken Thompson
Kenneth Lane Thompson (born 4 February 1943) is a computer scientist and winner of the 1983 Turing Award, together with Dennis Ritchie. He is notable for his work on the Unix operating system.
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