The Jacob Schwartz mentioned at the end is he of SETL fame.
Edit: > Knowing fully the possibilities which the machine affords, [the honest programmer] will nevertheless not allow himself to indulge in ... laziness implying reckless expenditure of computational resources. This essentially aesthetic relationship of the programmer to his work constitutes a most effective safeguard against the mindless accumulation of software inefficiencies, which ... would cheat the consumer and lose for us the full power of machines.
sadly, this aesthetic of parsimony is no longer as prominent as it may have been 50 years ago!
Edit: > Knowing fully the possibilities which the machine affords, [the honest programmer] will nevertheless not allow himself to indulge in ... laziness implying reckless expenditure of computational resources. This essentially aesthetic relationship of the programmer to his work constitutes a most effective safeguard against the mindless accumulation of software inefficiencies, which ... would cheat the consumer and lose for us the full power of machines.
sadly, this aesthetic of parsimony is no longer as prominent as it may have been 50 years ago!