Always dive down into a problem and get your hands on the deepest issue
behind the problem. All other considerations are to dismissed as
"engineering details"; they can be sorted out after the basic problem
has been solved.
-- Chris Crawford
Some people suggest that machines would be friendlier if input could be
in a natural language. But natural language is probably the worst kind
of input because it can be quite ambiguous. The process of retrieving
information from the computer would be so time-consuming that you would
be better off spending that time getting the information directly from
an expert.
-- Gary Kildall (inventor of CP/M, one of the first OS for the micro).
It is said that the real winner is the one who lives in today but able
to see tomorrow.
-- Juan Meng, Reviewing "The future of ideas" by Lawrence Lessig
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its
victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under
robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's
cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated;
but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for
they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-- C.S. Lewis
It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students
that have had prior exposure to BASIC. As potential programmers, they
are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
-- E. W. Dijkstra
This challenge, viz. the confrontation with the programming task, is so
unique that this novel experience can teach us a lot about ourselves. It
should deepen our understanding of the processes of design and creation,
it should give us better control over the task of organizing our
thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should no deserve the
computer at all! It has allready taught us a few lessons, and the one I
have chosen to stress in this talk is the following. We shall do a much
better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full
appreciation of its tremenduous difficulty, provided that we stick to
modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the
intrinsec limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very
Humble Programmers.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, The humble programmer
More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency (without
necessarily achieving it) than for any other single reason - including
blind stupidity.
-- W.A. Wulf
In OO, it's the data that is the "important" thing: you define the class
which contains member data, and only incidentally contains code for
manipulating the object. In FP, it's the code that's important: you
define a function which contains code for working with the data, and
only incidentally define what the data is.
-- almkgor, on reddit
It is said that the real winner is the one who lives in today but able
to see tomorrow.
-- Juan Meng, Reviewing "The future of ideas" by Lawrence Lessig
Remember that you are humans in the first place and only after that
programmers.
-- Alexandru Vancea
Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it ain't
fun -- it's entertainment.
-- David Mamet (as relayed by Joss Whedon)
Remember, always be yourself ... unless you suck!
-- Joss Whedon
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally
better than your dreams.
-- Dr. Seuss
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they
were to success when they gave up.
-- Thomas Edison
Always dive down into a problem and get your hands on the deepest issue
behind the problem. All other considerations are to dismissed as
"engineering details"; they can be sorted out after the basic problem
has been solved.
-- Chris Crawford
Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling [whining, complaining]; it
means facing the truth and then moving on.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.
Some people suggest that machines would be friendlier if input could be
in a natural language. But natural language is probably the worst kind
of input because it can be quite ambiguous. The process of retrieving
information from the computer would be so time-consuming that you would
be better off spending that time getting the information directly from
an expert.
-- Gary Kildall (inventor of CP/M, one of the first OS for the micro).
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
-- Rush (Freewill)
XML wasn't designed to be edited by humans on a regular basis.
-- Guido van Rossum
It is said that the real winner is the one who lives in today but able
to see tomorrow.
-- Juan Meng, Reviewing "The future of ideas" by Lawrence Lessig
No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
-- Eric S. Raymond, How to become a hacker
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its
victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under
robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's
cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated;
but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for
they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-- C.S. Lewis
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a
while, you could miss it.
-- Ferris Bueller
Remember that you are humans in the first place and only after that
programmers.
-- Alexandru Vancea
The problem is that Microsoft just has no taste. And I don't mean that
in a small way, I mean that in a big way.
-- Steve Jobs
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the
results.
-- Winston Churchill
Programming is the art of figuring out what you want so precisely that
even a machine can do it.
-- Some guy who isn't famous
I had to learn how to teach less, so that more could be learned.
-- Tim Gallwey, The inner game of work
Lisp is a programmable programming language.
-- John Foderaro
Good coders code, great reuse.
-- http://www.catonmat.net
Measure everything you can about the product, and you'll start seeing
patterns.
-- Max Levchin, PayPal founder, Talk at StartupSchool2007
It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students
that have had prior exposure to BASIC. As potential programmers, they
are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
-- E. W. Dijkstra
Dont give users the opportunity to lock themselves.
-- unknown
The choice of the university is mostly important for the piece of paper
you get at the end. The education you get depends on you.
-- Andreas Zwinkau
This challenge, viz. the confrontation with the programming task, is so
unique that this novel experience can teach us a lot about ourselves. It
should deepen our understanding of the processes of design and creation,
it should give us better control over the task of organizing our
thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should no deserve the
computer at all! It has allready taught us a few lessons, and the one I
have chosen to stress in this talk is the following. We shall do a much
better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full
appreciation of its tremenduous difficulty, provided that we stick to
modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the
intrinsec limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very
Humble Programmers.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, The humble programmer
The greatest of all weaknesses is the fear of appearing weak.
-- J. B. Bossuet, Politics from Holy Writ, 1709
No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
-- Eric S. Raymond, How to become a hacker
More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency (without
necessarily achieving it) than for any other single reason - including
blind stupidity.
-- W.A. Wulf
Any sufficiently advanced technology is undistinguishable from magic.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
In OO, it's the data that is the "important" thing: you define the class
which contains member data, and only incidentally contains code for
manipulating the object. In FP, it's the code that's important: you
define a function which contains code for working with the data, and
only incidentally define what the data is.
-- almkgor, on reddit
It is said that the real winner is the one who lives in today but able
to see tomorrow.
-- Juan Meng, Reviewing "The future of ideas" by Lawrence Lessig