Web Quotes

"The other reason programmers are fussy, I think, is that evil begets stupidity. An organization that..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:15:41 -0500

“The other reason programmers are fussy, I think, is that evil begets stupidity. An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose the ability to win by doing better work. And it’s not fun for a smart person to work in a place where the best ideas aren’t the ones that win.”

- Apple’s Mistake

"…programming languages should have a “low floor” (easy to get started) and a..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:30:42 -0500

“…programming languages should have a “low floor” (easy to get started) and a “high ceiling” (opportunities to create increasingly complex projects over time). In addition, languages need “wide walls” (supporting many different types of projects so people with many different interests and learning styles can all become engaged)”

- Scratch: Programming for All | November 2009 | Communications of the ACM

"Academy Award-winning director (The Incredibles and Ratatouille) talks about the importance, in his..."

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:12:08 -0400

“Academy Award-winning director (The Incredibles and Ratatouille) talks about the importance, in his work, of pushing teams beyond their comfort zones, encouraging dissent, and building morale. He also explained the value of “black sheep”—restless contributors with unconventional ideas.”

- Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation

"Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying..."

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:20:34 -0400

“Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen”

- Hard Work’s Overrated, Maybe Detrimental. | Design & Innovation | Fast Company

"Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute."

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:58:04 -0400

“Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.”

- Hackers and Painters

"Programming is an exercise in overcoming how wrong you’ve been in the past. At first you’ll overcome..."

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:54:16 -0400

“Programming is an exercise in overcoming how wrong you’ve been in the past. At first you’ll overcome the syntax errors, then you’ll overcome the structural errors, and then you’ll come to align your code with the standards of a greater community and you’ll feel safe and like you’ve made it. You haven’t – you’re still wrong because you’re always wrong. You are playing a game you cannot win. And let’s face it – if it was a game you could win you’d not be playing at all.”

- Kickingbear» Blog Archive » Don’t Be A Dick: Compiled Flash and You.

"For far too long, techies have been obsessed with the workings of what they do rather than the..."

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:12:14 -0400

“For far too long, techies have been obsessed with the workings of what they do rather than the results of those workings. With only a statistically insignificant number of exceptions, most people using an iPhone would not know Objective-C if it smacked them in the face with a sackload of gold-plated unicorn shit. More than that: they simply don’t care. Not because they’re careless, but because it is genuinely irrelevant to their lives”

- iPhone Developers and Language Snobbery « Made by Many

"Most companies have it all wrong. They don’t have to motivate their employees. They have to..."

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:34:07 -0400

“Most companies have it all wrong. They don’t have to motivate their employees. They have to stop demotivating them. The great majority of employees are quite enthusiastic when they start a new job. But in about 85 percent of companies, our research finds, employees’ morale sharply declines after their first six months—and continues to deteriorate for years afterward.”

- Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation - HBS Working Knowledge

"Visual appeal and back-end performance obviously play a big role in website visitors’ experiences,..."

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:12:04 -0400

“Visual appeal and back-end performance obviously play a big role in website visitors’ experiences, but it’s not the same as UX: good UX is a good functional experience.”

- Top Ten UX Mistakes on Consumer Websites » Bolt | Peters

"The real company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded,..."

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:39:06 -0400

“The real company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go”

- Netflix’s corporate culture | Blog | Nick Finck | UX/IA Pro, Speaker, and Community Cultivator.

"What is wrong? Why is mere opinion so dominating discussions held on the easiest medium there has..."

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:52:46 -0400

“What is wrong? Why is mere opinion so dominating discussions held on the easiest medium there has ever been that can provide substantiations with just a little curiosity and work? Is the world completely reverting to an oral culture of assertions held around an electronic campfire?”

- Alan Kay Re: Smalltalk Data Structures and Algorithms via Karl Martino

"I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a..."

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:28:45 -0400

“I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out. There are ‘extremists’ in the free software world, but that’s one major reason why I don’t call what I do ‘free software’ any more. I don’t want to be associated with the people for whom it’s about exclusion and hatred.””

- Linus: “Microsoft Hatred Is a Disease”

"What is the most often-overlooked risk in software engineering? Incompetent programmers. There are..."

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:54:03 -0400

“What is the most often-overlooked risk in software engineering? Incompetent programmers. There are estimates that the number of programmers needed in the U.S. exceeds 200,000. This is entirely misleading. It is not a quantity problem; we have a quality problem. One bad programmer can easily create two new jobs a year. Hiring more bad programmers will just increase our perceived need for them. If we had more good programmers, and could easily identify them, we would need fewer, not more.”

- ACM SIGSOFT SEN: ACM Fellow David Lorge Parnas via
Coding Horror

"I’m gradually coming to the conclusion that software engineering is an idea whose time has..."

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:51:14 -0400

“I’m gradually coming to the conclusion that software engineering is an idea whose time has come and gone. Software development is and always will be somewhat experimental. The actual software construction isn’t necessarily experimental, but its conception is. And this is where our focus ought to be. It’s where our focus always ought to have been.”

- Coding Horror: Software Engineering: Dead?

"Is Google evil? It doesn’t matter. They’ve reached the point of corporate ambition and..."

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:41:21 -0400

“Is Google evil? It doesn’t matter. They’ve reached the point of corporate ambition and changing corporate culture that means they’re going to be perceived as if they are. Whether they’re able to truly internalize that lesson, accept it, and act accordingly will determine if they’re able to extend their dominance in the years to come.”

- Google’s Microsoft Moment - Anil Dash

"Software is a process, it’s never finished, it’s always evolving. That’s its..."

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:51:17 -0400

“Software is a process, it’s never finished, it’s always evolving. That’s its nature. We know our software sucks. But it’s shipping! Next time we’ll do better, but even then it will be shitty. The only software that’s perfect is one you’re dreaming about. Real software crashes, loses data, is hard to learn and hard to use. But it’s a process.”

- Coding Horror: We Make Shitty Software.. With Bugs!

"..the key for developing products at Apple was saying no to a lot of features and additions and..."

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:25:09 -0400

“..the key for developing products at Apple was saying no to a lot of features and additions and instead focusing on usability and ease of use. “Apple will always focus on doing a few things extraordinarily well … You can grow from there but don’t try to put everything in. That just confuses folks.””

- Apple exec jumps to venture capital

"Open-source projects that create a strong, valuable, easily extensible core that developers have the..."

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:24:18 -0400

“Open-source projects that create a strong, valuable, easily extensible core that developers have the ability to build upon, as well as the pecuniary or reputational interest in extending, are more likely to succeed.”

- Open-source licensing: Your mileage may vary | The Open Road - CNET News

"Web application developers need to be pragmatically-open, by choosing open technologies whenever..."

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:26:49 -0400

“Web application developers need to be pragmatically-open, by choosing open technologies whenever possible, but they should not hesitate to use proprietary ones when required. It is not about being religious about openness or anything else, but rather about being diligent so that one is able to choose the right technology to maximize the chances of success of the target application”

- To Flash or to Open Web | Bits And Buzz, by Jeremy Chone

"The HTML 5 timeline states that it will be at least a decade before the evolving HTML 5/CSS 3..."

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:48:14 -0400

“The HTML 5 timeline states that it will be at least a decade before the evolving HTML 5/CSS 3 efforts are finalized, and it remains to be seen what parts will be implemented consistently across all browsers.”

- HTML 5: Could it kill Flash and Silverlight? by InfoWorld: Yahoo! Tech