Think twice, code once. --Waseem Latif A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points --Alan Kay Not only is this incomprehensible, but the ink is ugly and the paper is from the wrong kind of tree. --Professor W. [On identifying talented programmers] It’s just enthusiasm. You ask them what’s the most interesting program they worked on. And then you get them to describe it and its algorithms and what’s going on. If they can’t withstand my questioning on their program, then they’re not good. I’m asking them to describe something they’ve done that they’ve spent blood on. I’ve never met anybody who really did spend blood on something who wasn’t eager to describe what they’ve done and how they did it and why. I let them pick the subject. I don’t pick the subject, so I’m the amateur and they’re the professional in this subject. If they can’t stand an amateur asking them questions about their profession, then they don’t belong. --Ken Thompson The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why. --perldoc perl There ain't no rules around here. We are trying to accomplish something. --Thomas Edison 'Martyrdom' is the only way a person can become famous without ability. --George Bernard Shaw But while you can always write 'spaghetti code' in a procedural language, object-oriented languages used poorly can add meatballs to your spaghetti. --Andrew Hunt The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong without comment. --Theodore H. White I'm a programmer. I like programming. And the best way I've found to have a positive impact on code is to write it. --Robert C. Martin Some of the best programming is done on paper, really. Putting it into the computer is just a minor detail. --Max Kanat-Alexander Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it. --Donald Knuth Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out. --Chris Pine With software there are only two possibilites: either the users control the programme or the programme controls the users. If the programme controls the users, and the developer controls the programme, then the programme is an instrument of unjust power. --Richard Stallman When in doubt, do something. --Harry Chapin Object-oriented programming offers a sustainable way to write spaghetti code. It lets you accrete programs as a series of patches. --Paul Graham The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intention of its user. --C.A.R. Hoare The big optimizations come from refining the high-level design, not the individual routines. --Steve McConnell If the steps become to big, they become walls... --Herb Sutter So if an algorithm is an idealized recipe, a program is the detailed set of instructions for a cooking robot preparing a month of meals for an army while under enemy attack --Kernighan Brian What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time? --James Alan Gardner That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. --Larry Niven
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