---
created_at: '2011-10-13T09:02:47.000Z'
title: 'Rob Pike: An important message from Dennis Ritchie (1981)'
url: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101960720994009339267/posts/jKyyV1tXD6c
author: xd
points: 160
story_text: ''
comment_text: 
num_comments: 3
story_id: 
story_title: 
story_url: 
parent_id: 
created_at_i: 1318496567
_tags:
- story
- author_xd
- story_3106646
objectID: '3106646'

---
  
  
The lot of you have had such a huge impact on my life. My father was an
engineer at Bell Labs back in the day, and I was always very interested
in his work. When I was 11 or 12, he brought home a terminal (thermal
printer w/acoustic modem), a K\&R book, and a handful of memos about how
to work the shell and the text editor. I was hooked. When I finally
realized my dream of working at Bell Labs myself, I read every technical
memo I could get my hands on from your group. I don't recall if I had
the pleasure of meeting you in person,

echoes my own thoughts. In the late 80s, I worked in the Murray Hill
comp. center for a few years. It was early in my career, but I was in a
meeting for a technical committee with which Dennis was also involved.
At one point he asked my opinion on one of the topics under discussion.
This made an enormous impression on me, not only encouraging me
personally -- if my input was of interest to the likes of dmr, I must be
doing something right\! -- but also as a reminder that the truly great
put their own egos aside and learn all they can from everyone around
them.The lot of you have had such a huge impact on my life. My father
was an engineer at Bell Labs back in the day, and I was always very
interested in his work. When I was 11 or 12, he brought home a terminal
(thermal printer w/acoustic modem), a K\&R book, and a handful of memos
about how to work the shell and the text editor. I was hooked. When I
finally realized my dream of working at Bell Labs myself, I read every
technical memo I could get my hands on from your group. I don't recall
if I had the pleasure of meeting you in person,, but please know that
your work and your writing were invaluable to me.
