> It gets me a little personal validation that we still have many exiting ch... | Hacker News

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cheez on Aug 1, 2011 | parent | context | favorite | on: The Art of Computer Programming (interview with Do...

> It gets me a little personal validation that we still have many exiting challenges ahead.

I read that one of the US Patent Office people quit at the turn of the 20th century because he was convinced there was nothing left to do.

If I have learned anything, it's that for every problem humans solve, a few more pop up that we never thought would exist.

It makes me happy.

jleader on Aug 1, 2011 [–]

It appears that that story about the director of the Patent Office saying there's nothing more to invent is mostly made up, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Duell or http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/22779.html or the most detailed debunking: http://www.myoutbox.net/posass.htm

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