Actually, the essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for
novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless
richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.
I was talking recently to a friend who teaches at MIT. His field is hot
now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be
graduate students. "A lot of them seem smart," he said. "What I can't
tell is whether they have any kind of taste."
-- Paul Graham
Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc,
informally specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common
Lisp.
-- Philip Greenspun (Greenspun's Tenth Rule)
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that
have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are
mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
We remember what we learn when we care about performing better and when
we believe that what we have been asked to do is representative of
reality.
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software
development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called an
engineering discipline.
-- Bill Clinton
Lisp has jokingly been called "the most intelligent way to misuse a
computer". I think that description is a great compliment because it
transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our
most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
-- Edsger Dijkstra, CACM, 15:10
We really have to get over the idea that some stuff is just worth
knowing even if you never do anything with it. Human memories happily
erase stuff that has no purpose, so why try to fill up children's heads
with such stuff?
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
A hacker on a roll may be able to produce–in a period of a few
months–something that a small development group (say, 7-8 people) would
have a hard time getting together over a year. IBM used to report that
certain programmers might be as much as 100 times as productive as other
workers, or more.
-- Peter Seebach
Ce n'est que par les relations qu'on entretient entre nos différentes
connaissances qu'elles nous restent accessibles.
-- Shnuup, sur l'hypertexte (SELFHTML -> Introduction -> Definitions sur l'hypertexte)
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
Sometimes a man with too broad a perspective reveals himself as having
no real perspective at all. A man who tries too hard to see every side
may be a man who is trying to avoid choosing any side. A man who tries
too hard to seek a deeper truth may be trying to hide from the truth he
already knows. That is not a sign of intellectual sophistication and
"great thinking". It is a demonstration of moral degeneracy and
cowardice.
-- Steven Den Beste
Actually, the essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for
novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless
richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.
I was talking recently to a friend who teaches at MIT. His field is hot
now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be
graduate students. "A lot of them seem smart," he said. "What I can't
tell is whether they have any kind of taste."
-- Paul Graham
Ils ne sont pas forts parce qu'ils sont forts. Ils sont forts parce que
nous sommes faibles.
-- Ragala Khalid
Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc,
informally specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common
Lisp.
-- Philip Greenspun (Greenspun's Tenth Rule)
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that
have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are
mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
Work as intensely as you play and play as intensely as you work.
-- Eric S. Raymond, How To Be A Hacker
It(mastering)’s knowing what you are doing.
-- Joesgoals.com
A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker makes clear what is
obscure.
-- Hugh Kingsmill
We remember what we learn when we care about performing better and when
we believe that what we have been asked to do is representative of
reality.
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
https://tenor.com/view/melken-marco-kraats-milking-gif-13621530
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should therefore be
regarded as a criminal offense.
-- E.W. Dijkstra
Good work is no done by ‘humble’ men.
-- H. Hardy, A mathematician's apology.
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
-- Mark Twain
Making All Software Into Tools Reduces Risk.
-- smoothspan.com
If something isn’t working, you need to look back and figure out what
got you excited in the first place.
-- David Gorman (ImThere.com)
If there is a will, there is a way.
-- unknown
Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software
development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called an
engineering discipline.
-- Bill Clinton
Remember that you are humans in the first place and only after that
programmers.
-- Alexandru Vancea
Lisp has jokingly been called "the most intelligent way to misuse a
computer". I think that description is a great compliment because it
transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our
most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
-- Edsger Dijkstra, CACM, 15:10
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
-- Alexander Pope
We really have to get over the idea that some stuff is just worth
knowing even if you never do anything with it. Human memories happily
erase stuff that has no purpose, so why try to fill up children's heads
with such stuff?
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling [whining, complaining]; it
means facing the truth and then moving on.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which
matter least.
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
A hacker on a roll may be able to produce–in a period of a few
months–something that a small development group (say, 7-8 people) would
have a hard time getting together over a year. IBM used to report that
certain programmers might be as much as 100 times as productive as other
workers, or more.
-- Peter Seebach
Normality is the route to nowhere.
-- Ridderstrale & Nordstorm, Funky Business
There really is no learning without doing.
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire
just might be procrastination.
-- Hara Estroff Marano.
Ce n'est que par les relations qu'on entretient entre nos différentes
connaissances qu'elles nous restent accessibles.
-- Shnuup, sur l'hypertexte (SELFHTML -> Introduction -> Definitions sur l'hypertexte)
There is one meaning [for static in C]: a global variable that is
invisible outside the current scope, be it a function or a file.
-- Paolo Bonzini
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
Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it)
in programming.
-- Donald Knuth
You can have premature generalization as well as premature optimization.
-- Bjarne Stroustrup
All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of
indirection.
-- Butler Lampson
We will never become a truly paper-less society until the Palm Pilot
folks come out with WipeMe 1.0.
-- Andy Pierson
Sometimes a man with too broad a perspective reveals himself as having
no real perspective at all. A man who tries too hard to see every side
may be a man who is trying to avoid choosing any side. A man who tries
too hard to seek a deeper truth may be trying to hide from the truth he
already knows. That is not a sign of intellectual sophistication and
"great thinking". It is a demonstration of moral degeneracy and
cowardice.
-- Steven Den Beste
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
Making All Software Into Tools Reduces Risk.
-- smoothspan.com
Be the change you want to see in the world.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Omit needless words.
-- William Strunk, Jr. (The Elements of Style)
You can’t get to version 500 if you don’t start with a version 1.
-- BetterExplained.com