"The first step of any project is to grossly underestimate its complexity and difficulty." – Nicoll Hunt
Programming Wisdom
@CodeWisdom
Programming wisdom and quotes throughout the years.
The Knuth, the whole Knuth, and nothing but the Knuth, so help me Codd.
In the ALU on an 80186Joined October 2011
Programming Wisdom’s posts
"Weeks of coding can save you hours of planning." - Unknown
"Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer." - Filipe Fortes
"The best learners are the people who push through the discomfort of being objectively bad at something." – Tommy Collison
"Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer." - Filipe Fortes
"Rarely is anyone thanked for the work they did to prevent the disaster that didn't happen." – Mikko Hypponen
"Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it’s bad." — Cory House
"Programming is not about typing, it's about thinking." - Rich Hickey
"Programming is not about typing, it's about thinking." – Rich Hickey
"The number one skill required for learning any complex system is patience." - Kelsey Hightower
"You haven't mastered a tool until you understand when it should not be used." – Kelsey Hightower
"Telling a programmer there's already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there's already a song about love." - Pete Cordell
"A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street." – Doug Linder
“Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” - Martin Fowler
"When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code." – Richard Pattis
"Hell isn't other people's code. Hell is your own code from 3 years ago." – Jeff Atwood
"First, solve the problem. Then, write the code." — John Johnson
"What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months." - Fred Brooks
"The trick is to fix the problem you have, rather than the problem you want." - Bram Cohen
"Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out." - Chris Pine
"The first step of any project is to grossly underestimate its complexity and difficulty." - Nicoll Hunt
"Programming isn’t about what you know; it’s about what you can figure out." – Chris Pine
"What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months." - Fred Brooks 🗓🧑💻🧑💻🗓
"Telling a programmer there's already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there's already a song about love." - Pete Cordell
"If it wasn't for C, we'd be writing programs in BASI, PASAL, and OBOL." – Unknown
"Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out." - Chris Pine 🤔
"If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how fast it doesn’t work." – Mich Ravera
🤔 "Programming is not about typing, it's about thinking." — Rich Hickey
"We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins." – Ellen Ullman
"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." – Martin Fowler
"The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can't learn anything from being perfect." — Adam Osborne
"Telling a programmer there's already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there's already a song about love." - Pete Cordell
"The best programs are the ones written when the programmer is supposed to be working on something else." - Melinda Varian
"Why are video games so much better designed than office software? Because people who design video games love to play video games. People who design office software look forward to doing something else on the weekend." – Ted Nelson
"Theory is when you know something, but it doesn’t work. Practice is when something works, but you don’t know why. Programmers combine theory and practice: Nothing works and they don’t know why." – Unknown
"Programming is like cooking: in Python, you use pre-made bolognese sauce; in C++, you start from fresh tomatoes and minced meat; in Assembly, you have a farm where you grow your tomatoes and raise your cow." -
"The code you write makes you a programmer. The code you delete makes you a good one. The code you don't have to write makes you a great one." - Mario Fusco
"Every great developer you know got there by solving problems they were unqualified to solve until they actually did it." - Patrick McKenzie
“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence boils down to curiosity.” - Aaron Swartz
"Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer." - Filipe Fortes
"Theory is when you know something, but it doesn’t work. Practice is when something works, but you don’t know why. Programmers combine theory and practice: Nothing works and they don’t know why." - Unknown
"Code is there to explain the comments to the computer" — Andy Harris
"Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self." - Damian Conway
"Give someone a program, you frustrate them for a day; teach them how to program, you frustrate them for a lifetime." - David Leinweber
"Some problems solve themselves if you are patient enough." – Jaana Dogan
"Make it work, then make it beautiful, then if you really, really have to, make it fast. 90 percent of the time, if you make it beautiful, it will already be fast. So really, just make it beautiful!" – Joe Armstrong
The eight fallacies of distributed computing:
1. The network is reliable;
2. Latency is zero;
3. Bandwidth is infinite;
4. The network is secure;
5. Topology doesn’t change;
6. There is one administrator;
7. Transport cost is zero;
8. The network is homogeneous.
— L Peter Deutsch
"We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins." - Ellen Ullman
"If you provide an API client that doesn't include rate limiting, you don't really have an API client. You've got an exception generator with a remote timer." – Richard Schneeman
"The most important single aspect of software development is to be clear about what you are trying to build." - Bjarne Stroustrup
"Telling a programmer there's already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there's already a song about love." - Pete Cordell
"First do it, then do it right, then do it better." - Addy Osmani
"To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error." — Ellen Ullman
"What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months." - Fred Brooks
“ Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it’s bad.” – Cory House
"We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins." - Ellen Ullman
📑 "Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self." — Damian Conway
The reality of being a programmer with a finite amount of memory! 😂
"Programming isn't about what you know – it's about what you can figure out." – Chris Pine
"Hell isn't other people's code. Hell is your own code from 3 years ago." – Jeff Atwood
"Theory is when you know something, but it doesn’t work. Practice is when something works, but you don’t know why. Programmers combine theory and practice: Nothing works and they don’t know why." - Unknown
"Telling a programmer there's already a library to do X is like telling a songwriter there's already a song about love." - Pete Cordell
“ Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it’s bad.” – Cory House
"A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street." - Doug Linder
"The object-oriented version of spaghetti code is, of course, 'lasagna code'. Too many layers." - Roberto Waltman
"The first step of any project is to grossly underestimate its complexity and difficulty." - Nicoll Hunt
"Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships." – Linus Torvalds
"Every great developer you know got there by solving problems they were unqualified to solve until they actually did it." - Patrick McKenzie
"How did you know so much about computers?”
"I didn’t, it was the first one.”
Grace Hopper on Letterman - youtube.com/watch?v=1-vcEr
"A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds." – Ted Nelson
"The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself." — Alan Cooper
"Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it’s bad." - Cory House
"Clean code always looks like it was written by someone who cares." – Michael Feathers
"To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error." — Ellen Ullman
"A good API is not just easy to use but also hard to misuse." - JBD
"Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer." - Filipe Fortes
"The best programs are the ones written when the programmer is supposed to be working on something else." - Melinda Varian
"You haven't mastered a tool until you understand when it should not be used." -
“The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it.” - Pamela Zave
"Why do I have six monitors? Because I don't have room for eight." – Terry Pratchett (1948-2015)
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"In programming, if someone tells you “you’re overcomplicating it,” they’re either 10 steps behind you or 10 steps ahead of you." – Andrew Clark
"Every great developer you know got there by solving problems they were unqualified to solve until they actually did it." - Patrick McKenzie
"The best programs are the ones written when the programmer is supposed to be working on something else." — Melinda Varian
"Programming is not about typing, it's about thinking." - Rich Hickey
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” - Alan Kay
"Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding." - Burt Rutan
"Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen." – Edward V. Berard
"First, solve the problem. Then, write the code." - John Johnson
"The function of good software is to make the complex appear to be simple." – Grady Booch
"One of the best programming skills you can have is knowing when to walk away for awhile." - Oscar Godson
"As a programmer, never underestimate your ability to come up with ridiculously complex solutions for simple problems." – Thomas Fuchs ()
