Any fool can write code that a computer can u nderstand. Good programmer write code that humans can understand. – Martin Fowler
You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program. – Alan Perlis(Yale University computer scientist)
Make it run, make it right, make it fast –Butler Lampson
The best writing is rewriting –E. B. White
Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute. – Abelson & Sussman, SICP, preface to the first edition
A man is a success if he get up in the morning and get to bed at night and in between he does what he wants to do
– Bob Dylan
Emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter; it simply makes everything else vanish. -Neal Stephenson, “In the Beginning was the Command Line”
Most people just make the mistake that is should be simple to design simple things. In reality, the effort required to design something is inversely proportional to the simplicity of the result. – Roy Fileding
If a problem is not completely understood, it is probably best to provide no solution at all. – principles of X
I hate code, and I want as little of it as possible in out product – Jack Diederich
The old adage “don’t reinvent the wheel” doesn’t apply when the wheel comes attached to locomotive engin. Inventing your own wheels give you a deep appreciation and understanding of how wheels work and what makes a good one.
The signature of “this shouldn’t be a class” is when the class has two methods, and one of them is the constructor. Any time you see these signs, you probably should have just written a function.
Refactoring > Rewriting
The most important element of successful software development is learning.
Good IT workers really don’t like saying “I don’t know.” If they say it, they probably mean it. So stop pushing for a definitive answer when one doesn’t exist. It’s perfectly resonable to want some sort of plan up front. I’m actually one of those funny types who believe up front planning is a necessity. So long as everyone understands an estimate is just that: an estimate. You learn as you go along and discore more detail. So you revise the estimate accordingly.
“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” - Michelangelo
Building something by gradually refine a prototype is good for morale because It keeps you engaged. In software my rule is: always have working code. If you’re writing something you’ll be able to test in an hour, you have the prospect of an immediate reward to motivate you. The same is true in the arts, and particularly in oil painting. Most Painters start with a blurry sketch and gradually refine it. – From P.G. Hakers and Painters
Just like an expensive guitar won’t make you a great guitar player and the best running shoes won’t get you out of the door every day, productivity techniques won’t finish your project. They might help, but you have to put the work in. You have to keep showing up and keep chipping away at it. No tool will ever do that for you.
– https://thorstenball.com/blog/2017/01/16/what-i-didnt-do-to-write-a-book/
If they don’t have the money to pay you, you’re not an employee, you’re a founder and you get the same deal that they get.
If they balk, suggest that they find another code monkey while you find another biz monkey and let the market decide who ends up with the bananas. – From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=287767
Reprentation is the essense of programming – The Mythical Man Month
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people. — Abraham Joshua Heschel
“The most violent element in society is ignorance.” - Emma Goldman
“Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way. …Laugh at the stupidities of the world or weep over them, you will regret it either way. …Trust a girl or do not trust her, you will regret it either way. …Hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either way. …This, gentlemen, is the quintessence of all the wisdom of life.” - Kierkegaard, Either/Or
“My job is to hold a mirror up to nature, which means I need to reflect true human nature — how we think, how act, and the great paradoxes in all our decisions.” – Tom Hanks
“When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, your mind becomes powerfully concentrated.
You begin to understand that writing/reading is, above all, a transaction.
The reader donates his time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities. In return, you the writer must give him something worthy of his gift to you.”
— Steven Pressfield
The best advice I ever got was Jim Watson, who co-discovered DNA. Jim is brilliant, and as many brilliant people are a little bit crazy, and Jim has this admonishment which is double meaning, three words: ‘Avoid boring people.’ I love it, because what he’s saying is, ‘Stay away from people who are not interesting,’ avoid boring people, and, ‘Avoid boring people. Don’t be boring to people. Be interesting.’”
Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships. ---- Linus Torvalds
Thinking happens only when we have time to struggle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVneQUA5-c
anything that can be measured can be optimized – https://github.com/dgryski/go-perfbook/blob/master/performance.md#writing-and-optimizing-go-code
Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck. - James Clear, Atomic Habits
“The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.” - Atomic Habits, James Clear
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” - Henri Bergson
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak –Hans Hofmann
Design is the art of arranging code to work today, and be changeable forever. –Sandi Metz
The main value in software is not the code produced, but the knowledge accumulated by the people who produced it.
To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life. —W. Somerset Maugham