It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible
to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with
such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.
-- John Von Neumann, circa 1949
Something Confusing about "Hard":
It's tempting to think that if it's hard, then it's valuable.
Most valuable things are hard.
Most hard things are completely useless -- (picture of someone smashing
their head through concrete blocks kung-fu style).
Hard DOES NOT EQUATE TO BEING valuable.
Remember Friendster back in the day?
You'd sign in, invite friends, have 25 friends, go to their profile, and
then it'd show how you were connected to each one.
That's an impressive [some geeky CS jargon] Cone traversal of a tree -
100 million string comparisons per page -- it won't scale.
Used to take a minute per page to load, and Friendster died a painful
death.
MySpace -- not interested in solving problems
They use the shortcut of "Miss Fitzpatrick is in your extended network"
(i.e. even when you're not even signed up for MySpace)
They didn't solve the hard problem. But they make the more relevant
assumption that you want to be connected to hot women. [LOL]
Shows Alexa graph showing that in early 2005 Myspace took off, and
quickly bypassed Friendster and never looked back.
-- Max Levchin, PayPal founder, Talk at StartupSchool2007
The minute you put the blame on someone else you’ve switch things from
being a problem you can control to a problem outside of your control.
-- engtech (internetducttape.com)
The only problems we can really solve in a satisfactory manner are those
that finally admit a nicely factored solution.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, The humble programmer
Humans differ from animals to the degree that they are not merely an end
result of their conditioning, but are able to reflect on their
experiences and strategies, and apply insight to make changes in the way
they live to modify the outcome.
-- SlideTrombone (comment on "Programming can ruin your life")
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
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
Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy
to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
-- Alan J. Perlis (Epigrams in programmi ng)
[Innovation] comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t
get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking
about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you
can concentrate on the things that are really important.
-- Steve Jobs
I think that a lot of programmers are ignoring an important point when
people talk about reducing code repetition on large projects.
Part of the idea is that large projects are intrinsically wrong. That
you should be looking at making a number of smaller projects that are
composable, even if you never end up reusing one of those smaller
projects elsewhere.
-- Dan Nugent
Understanding why C++ is the way it is helps a programmer use it well. A deep
understanding of a tool is essential for an expert craftsman.
-- Bjarne Stroustrap
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
It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible
to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with
such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.
-- John Von Neumann, circa 1949
Something Confusing about "Hard":
It's tempting to think that if it's hard, then it's valuable.
Most valuable things are hard.
Most hard things are completely useless -- (picture of someone smashing
their head through concrete blocks kung-fu style).
Hard DOES NOT EQUATE TO BEING valuable.
Remember Friendster back in the day?
You'd sign in, invite friends, have 25 friends, go to their profile, and
then it'd show how you were connected to each one.
That's an impressive [some geeky CS jargon] Cone traversal of a tree -
100 million string comparisons per page -- it won't scale.
Used to take a minute per page to load, and Friendster died a painful
death.
MySpace -- not interested in solving problems
They use the shortcut of "Miss Fitzpatrick is in your extended network"
(i.e. even when you're not even signed up for MySpace)
They didn't solve the hard problem. But they make the more relevant
assumption that you want to be connected to hot women. [LOL]
Shows Alexa graph showing that in early 2005 Myspace took off, and
quickly bypassed Friendster and never looked back.
-- Max Levchin, PayPal founder, Talk at StartupSchool2007
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are always cocksure and
the intelligent are always filled with doubt.
-- Bertrand Russell
The function of good software is to make the complex appear to be
simple.
-- Grady Booch
If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be
the process of putting them in.
-- Edsger W. Dijkstra
Mistakes were made.
-- Ronald Reagan
Dont give users the opportunity to lock themselves.
-- unknown
The minute you put the blame on someone else you’ve switch things from
being a problem you can control to a problem outside of your control.
-- engtech (internetducttape.com)
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a
little way past them into the impossible.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
Ils ne sont pas forts parce qu'ils sont forts. Ils sont forts parce que
nous sommes faibles.
-- Ragala Khalid
The best way to learn to live with our limitations is to know them.
--E. W. Dijkstra, The humble programmer
Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.
-- Erik Naggum
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.
-- Cited by Randy Pausch
If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete
themselves upon execution.
-- Robert Sewell
The only problems we can really solve in a satisfactory manner are those
that finally admit a nicely factored solution.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, The humble programmer
Humans differ from animals to the degree that they are not merely an end
result of their conditioning, but are able to reflect on their
experiences and strategies, and apply insight to make changes in the way
they live to modify the outcome.
-- SlideTrombone (comment on "Programming can ruin your life")
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
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's
a duck.
-- Official definition of "duck typing"
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
We will never become a truly paper-less society until the Palm Pilot
folks come out with WipeMe 1.0.
-- Andy Pierson
Chance favors the prepared mind.
-- Louis Pasteur
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.
-- Cited by Randy Pausch
The programmer must seek both perfection of part and adequacy of
collection.
-- Alan J. Perlis
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes
Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy
to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
-- Alan J. Perlis (Epigrams in programmi ng)
[Innovation] comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t
get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking
about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you
can concentrate on the things that are really important.
-- Steve Jobs
I think that a lot of programmers are ignoring an important point when
people talk about reducing code repetition on large projects.
Part of the idea is that large projects are intrinsically wrong. That
you should be looking at making a number of smaller projects that are
composable, even if you never end up reusing one of those smaller
projects elsewhere.
-- Dan Nugent
Good ideas are out there for anyone with the wit and the will to find
them.
-- Malcolm Gladwell, Who says big ideas are rare?
Understanding why C++ is the way it is helps a programmer use it well. A deep
understanding of a tool is essential for an expert craftsman.
-- Bjarne Stroustrap
Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.
-- Seneca
The greatest of all weaknesses is the fear of appearing weak.
-- J. B. Bossuet, Politics from Holy Writ, 1709
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
Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to
predict the future is to invent it.
-- Alan Kay
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
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a
little way past them into the impossible.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's
a duck.
-- Official definition of "duck typing"
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
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
Any sufficiently advanced technology is undistinguishable from magic.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
The job of a leader today is not to create followers. It’s to create
more leaders.
-- Ralph Nader