milliLampson

milliLampson

/mil'*-lamp"sn/ A unit of talking speed, abbreviated mL. Mostpeople run about 200 milliLampsons. The eponymous ButlerLampson (a CS theorist and systems implementor highly regardedamong hackers) goes at 1000. A few people speak faster. Thisunit is sometimes used to compare the (sometimes widelydisparate) rates at which people can generate ideas andactually emit them in speech. For example, noted computerarchitect C. Gordon Bell (designer of the PDP-11) is said,with some awe, to think at about 1200 mL but only talk atabout 300; he is frequently reduced to fragments of sentencesas his mouth tries to keep up with his speeding brain.