I think this is a funny thing on several levels - one you see the part that doesn't fit so you remove it making you the genius - in this way it's a nice motivational poster level thought.

But you could be a some. But if you were a some it would mean that there was no possibility of actually removing the some from the statement because it actually did describe accurately that there were somes that could avoid it.

So it is sort of a Gödelian joke.

I'd be leery of messing with Perlis, but then again, most popular quotes are misquotes. Carry on ...

No, he's a some ...