I don’t read fiction. I find it a waste of time. There are so many amazing things that are real; I don’t need to spend any time on a made-up story.
Jason Fried (source)
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Lisp is ugly. Will always be. If you care, you’re just not ready yet.
Manuel Simoni (The Axis Of Eval: That Ragged Old Lisp)
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Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
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This is why so many of the best programmers are libertarians. In our world, you sink or swim, and there are no excuses. When those far removed from the creation of wealth— undergraduates, reporters, politicians— hear that the richest 5% of the people have half the total wealth, they tend to think injustice! An experienced programmer would be more likely to think is that all? The top 5% of programmers probably write 99% of the good software.
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Question: How does a large software project get to be one year late?
Answer: One day at a time! Incremental slippages on many fronts eventually accumulate to produce a large overall delay.Fred Brooks
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Lisp has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.
Edsger W. Dijkstra
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In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut
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- Gordon Bell: The cheapest, fastest and most reliable components of a computer system are those that aren't there.
- Jon Bentley: Those missing components are also the most accurate (they never make mistakes), the most secure (they can't be broken into), and the easiest to design, document, test and maintain.
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Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
John Stuart Mill
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I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
John Stuart Mill
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[On Newspeak’s FFI]: It’s gonna be called CSlick and the L is optional.
Gilad Bracha
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Man isn’t a noble savage, he’s an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved — that about sums it up. I’m interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it’s a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure.
Stanley Kubrick
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A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems
Paul Erdös (source)
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Look into any carpenter’s tool-bag and see how many different hammers, chisels, planes and screw-drivers he keeps there - not for ostentation or luxury, but for different sorts of jobs.
Robert Graves and Alan Hodges (found in Room 101: A Nest of Classes)
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Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn’t be about the money.
Tim O’Reilly (via Daring Fireball)
