Favorite Quote?

What’s your favorite Quote?

“A primary cause of complexity is that software vendors uncritically adopt almost any feature that users want.”- Niklaus Wirth

“Every great developer you know got there by solving problems they were unqualified to solve until they actually did it.” - Patrick McKenzie

“The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself.” - Alan Cooper

“One of my most productive days was throwing away 1,000 lines of code.” - Ken Thompson

“There’s never enough time to design the right solution, but somehow always an infinite amount of time for supporting the wrong solution.” - mgnoonan

“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.” - Tom Cargill

“When you choose a language, you’re choosing more than a set of technical trade-offs-you’re choosing a community.” - Joshua Bloch

“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence boils down to curiosity.” - Aaron Swartz

“Truth can only be found in one place; the code.” - Robert C. Martin

“When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.” - Richard Pattis

“Write shy code - modules that don’t reveal anything unnecessary to other modules and that don’t rely on other modules’ implementations.” - Dave Thomas

“If at first you don’t succeed, call it version 1.0.” - Unknown

“Don’t patch bugs out, rewrite them out.” - Anonymous

“It turns out that style matters in programming for the same reason that it matters in writing. It makes for better reading.” - Douglas Crockford

“If someone claims to have the perfect programming language, [s]he is either a fool or a salesman or both.” - Bjarne Stroustrup

"There’s one technique that you must use if you want people to listen to you: listen to them.” - The Pragmatic Programmer Andrew Hunt & David Thomas

“It’s hard enough to find an error in your code when you’re looking for it; it’s even harder when you’ve assumed your code is error-free.”
― Steve McConnell

“The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it.” - Pamela Zave

“A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. Unless your last name is Lenz.” - Doug Linder

“The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can’t learn anything from being perfect.” - Adam Osborne

“Sometimes it’s better to leave something alone, to pause, and that’s very true of programming.” - Joyce Wheeler

“Give someone a program, you frustrate them for a day; teach them how to program, you frustrate them for a lifetime.” - David Leinweber

“Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer.” - Filipe Fortes

“The next best thing to having good ideas is recognising good ideas from your users. Sometimes the latter is better.” - Eric Raymond

"You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. It’s logic-based creativity.” - John Romero

“The best programs are the ones written when the programmer is supposed to be working on something else.” - Melinda Varian (Don’t even think about it David =) )

“Good code is its own best documentation. As you’re about to add a comment, ask yourself, ‘How can I improve the code so that this comment isn’t needed?’ Improve the code and then document it to make it even clearer.” - Steve McConnell

“Simple doesn’t mean stupid. Thinking that it does, does.” - Paul Krugman

“The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.” - Anonymous

“So much complexity in software comes from trying to make one thing do two things.” – Ryan Singer

"You can have the project: Done on time. Done on budget. Done properly. Pick two." − Unknown

“I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits.” - Kent Beck

“It’s not at all important to get it right the first time. It’s vitally important to get it right the last time."-The Pragmatic Programmer

“Be gentle, kind, and forgiving of your peers; respect from people you respect is really the only reward that sticks”
– Rusty Russell (creator of iptables)

“Java is to JavaScript what Car is to Carpet.” - Chris Heilmann

“Don’t document the problem, fix it.”– Atli Björgvin Oddsson

“Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” - Martin Fowler

“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering

“It’s not a bug - it’s an undocumented feature.” - Anonymous

“Telling a programmer there’s already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there’s already a song about love.” - Pete Cordell

“You haven’t mastered a tool until you understand when it should not be used.” - Anonymous

“You’re building your own maze, in a way, and you might just get lost in it.” - Marijn Haverbeke, Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming

“Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.” - Donald Knuth

“The cheapest, fastest and most reliable components of a computer system are those that aren’t there.” - Gordon Bell

“Make it correct, make it clear, make it concise, make it fast. In that order.” – Wes Dyer

“One of the greatest joys in watching the company grow has been seeing other people emerging as new leaders of their areas.” - SketchDeck CTO

“Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.” - Burt Rutan

“The code you write makes you a programmer. The code you delete makes you a good one. The code you don’t have to write makes you a great one.” - Mario Fusco

“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.” - Bill Gates

“Refuctoring - the process of taking a well-designed piece of code and, through a series of small, reversible changes, making it completely unmaintainable by anyone except yourself.” - Jason Gorman

“I find programming a fascinating area - the possibilities for combining engineering and art into something truly beautiful is unlimited.” - Anonymous

“The average user doesn’t give a damn what happens, as long as (1) it works and (2) it’s fast.” - Daniel J. Bernstein

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller you’re part of the road." - Stewart Brand

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“A primary cause of complexity is that software vendors uncritically adopt almost any feature that users want.”- Niklaus Wirth

“The average user doesn’t give a damn what happens, as long as (1) it works and (2) it’s fast.” - Daniel J. Bernstein

“You gotta risk it for the biscuit” -Ghandi

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I’m still on vacation but I am ashamed that no one has a Grace Hopper quote. She’s my idol in programming. She coined the term bug for heavens sake!

  • Ask forgiveness, not permission.
  • The computer is the first device made by man to assist the brain, not the arm.
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“I’ve never understood why a business wants to outsource architecture and tech strategy. They might as well outsource the ceo position as well.”
– Bart Elia

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“Fake it until you make it.” -Abraham Lincoln, probably

“Be firm with your hardware” … a well known vigorous mouse clicker

FWIW - When I was in college, I got hit by a car that was backing down a one-way street. So much for my optimization of only having to look in the direction cars should have been coming from.

“Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet”
~ Abraham Lincoln

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“Testing is for cowards.”

  •      Roedy Green
    

- Steve

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“Humor. A difficult concept. It is not logical” - Lt. Saavik

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!false

~ It’s funny, because it’s true.

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“The only people who refer to their customers as users are drug dealers and technology companies.”

-Manoush Zomorodi

I like these two best!

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“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” - Benjamin Franklin

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“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge

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