Quotes that float in my Mind

A colleague asked me to name books or articles that have influenced my thinking (Great question). However my mind works, I seem to store some ideas from multiple places but associated to short quotes. Here’s some of my favourite:

• You only learn by listening, not by talking.
  • The best thing you can do to make a friend is to really listen to someone.

Software:

• C.A.R.Hoare – There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.
• Leslie Lamport – “State the problem before describing the solution”
• Often when dealing with messy code or 3rd party teams that aren’t delivering or need help, I try to think to myself “be the change” and try to make a difference. A quote commonly attributed to Gandhi. I had one colleague that would jibe back “Don’t be a hero” that the soldier with his head over the parapet gets shot. He felt triumphant when he realised Gandhi was assassinated. I still try to be the change 🙂
•  Tom Cargill – “The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time.”. Why I have to take a deep breath when someone says oh that’s just one line of code, rarely if ever is it one line of code. Especially on a legacy system with no tests and a business that specifies unclear demands.
• There are two types of companies/people. Those..”that sees quality and efficiency as opposing forces, or one that sees them as inseparable“. If you rush to push things out quick now, the overall delivery speed will be slower. – HN post.
• Fred Brooks – “The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.”
• Donald Knuth – “premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.” Until you have a benchmark showing where time is being taken and that this area is the constraint we will not be rewriting this currently simple clear code.
• Brian Kernighan – “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”
• Horowitz – “There is no silver bullet that’s going to fix that. No, we are going to have to use a lot of lead bullets.”
• Martin Fowler – “If it hurts, do it more often”

Work in General

• If you accept sh*t and shovel sh*t, don’t complain when people bring you more sh*t to shovel. You brought it on yourself. – James.
• The best way to challenge something, may not be to oppose it but to ask “why” it’s being done.

Misc

• The power of habit – “Practice makes Permanent” – Practice by itself will not make you better, you must reflect and get feedback on the practice you’ve done and consider how you can improve.