That is one of the most distinctive differences between school and the
real world: there is no reward for putting in a good effort. In fact,
the whole concept of a "good effort" is a fake idea adults invented to
encourage kids. It is not found in nature.
-- Paul Graham
Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better
idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and
better idiots. So far the Universe is winning.
-- Rich Cook
What Paul does, and does very well, is to take ideas and concepts that
are beautiful in the abstract, and brings them down to a real world
level. That's a rare talent to find in writing these days.
-- Jeff "hemos" Bates, Director, OSDN; Co-evolver, Slashdot
A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average
lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000
times the price of an average software writer.
-- Bill Gates
We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process,
a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after
year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for
as long as he or she lives.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.
While I’ve always appreciated beautiful code, I share Jonathan’s concern
about studying it too much. I think studying beauty in music and
painting has led us to modern classical music and painting that the
majority of us just don’t get. Beauty can be seen when it emerges, but
isn’t something to strive for in isolation of a larger context. In the
software world, the larger context would be the utility of the software
to the end user.
-- [A comment on a blog]
Hence my urgent advice to all of you to reject the morals of the
bestseller society and to find, to start with, your reward in your own
fun. This is quite feasible, for the challenge of simplification is so
fascinating that, if we do our job properly, we shall have the greatest
fun in the world.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, On the nature of computing science.
Hire people smarter than you. Work with people smarter than you.
Listen to them. Let them lead you. Take the blame for all failures,
give away the credit for all successes.
-- How to fail: 25 secrets learned through failure
Humans aren't rational -- they rationalize. And I don't just mean "some
of them" or "other people". I'm talking about everyone. We have a "logic
engine" in our brains, but for the most part, it's not the one in the
driver's seat -- instead it operates after the fact, generating
rationalizations and excuses for our behavior.
-- Paul Buchheit
All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of
indirection.
-- Butler Lampson
It(mastering)’s knowing what you are doing.
-- Joesgoals.com
But what is it good for?
-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,
commenting on the microchip, 1968
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
-- Alexander Pope
There really is no learning without doing.
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as lines
produced but as lines spent.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the
results.
-- Winston Churchill
It is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally
vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing
them.
-- Aristotle.
PI seconds is a nanocentury.
-- [fact]
Ne te mets pas de limite, la vie se chargera de la mettre a ta place.
-- Darryl AMEDON
That is one of the most distinctive differences between school and the
real world: there is no reward for putting in a good effort. In fact,
the whole concept of a "good effort" is a fake idea adults invented to
encourage kids. It is not found in nature.
-- Paul Graham
Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring
aircraft building progress by weight.
-- Bill Gates
If there is a will, there is a way.
-- unknown
Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better
idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and
better idiots. So far the Universe is winning.
-- Rich Cook
What Paul does, and does very well, is to take ideas and concepts that
are beautiful in the abstract, and brings them down to a real world
level. That's a rare talent to find in writing these days.
-- Jeff "hemos" Bates, Director, OSDN; Co-evolver, Slashdot
Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
-- Alan Perlis
A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average
lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000
times the price of an average software writer.
-- Bill Gates
We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process,
a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after
year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for
as long as he or she lives.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.
While I’ve always appreciated beautiful code, I share Jonathan’s concern
about studying it too much. I think studying beauty in music and
painting has led us to modern classical music and painting that the
majority of us just don’t get. Beauty can be seen when it emerges, but
isn’t something to strive for in isolation of a larger context. In the
software world, the larger context would be the utility of the software
to the end user.
-- [A comment on a blog]
If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as lines
produced but as lines spent.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
Linux is only free if your time has no value.
-- Jamie Zawinski
Resume writing is just like dating, or applying for a bank loan, in that
nobody wants you if you're desperate.
-- Steve Yegge.
In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?
-- David (Psalm 56:4)
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
Hence my urgent advice to all of you to reject the morals of the
bestseller society and to find, to start with, your reward in your own
fun. This is quite feasible, for the challenge of simplification is so
fascinating that, if we do our job properly, we shall have the greatest
fun in the world.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, On the nature of computing science.
The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
-- Elie Wiesel
Photography is painting with light.
-- Eric Hamilton
Hire people smarter than you. Work with people smarter than you.
Listen to them. Let them lead you. Take the blame for all failures,
give away the credit for all successes.
-- How to fail: 25 secrets learned through failure
An expert is, according to my working definition "someone who doesn't
need to look up answers to easy questions".
-- Eric Lippert.
Humans aren't rational -- they rationalize. And I don't just mean "some
of them" or "other people". I'm talking about everyone. We have a "logic
engine" in our brains, but for the most part, it's not the one in the
driver's seat -- instead it operates after the fact, generating
rationalizations and excuses for our behavior.
-- Paul Buchheit
Ne te mets pas de limite, la vie se chargera de la mettre a ta place.
-- Darryl AMEDON