Competitive/Collaborative Programming Class

There is nothing good or bad about knowledge itself; morality lies in the application of knowledge.
--Jon Erickson
The personal computer isn't "personal" because it's small and portable and yours to own. It's "personal" because you pour yourself into it - your thoughts, your programming.
--Audrey Watters
What is a university/college when the students lose interest?
--Isaac Traxler
When they first built the University of California at Irvine they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks, they just planted grass. The next year, they came back and put the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass. Perl is just that kind of language. It is not designed from first principles. Perl is those sidewalks in the grass.
--Larry Wall
First solve the problem. Then, write the code.
--Waseem Latif
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware
--Alan Kay
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
--Rick Cook
'Martyrdom' is the only way a person can become famous without ability.
--George Bernard Shaw
The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language.
--Alan Kay
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
--John Ciardi
When in doubt, do something.
--Harry Chapin
Happiness should be a function without any parameters.
--Pranshu Midha
Twenty hours at the keyboard can save you two hours of planning.
--Isaac Traxler
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
What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time?
--James Alan Gardner
[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