Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
When you want to do something differently from the rest of the world, it's a good idea to look into whether the rest of the world knows something you don't.
Anonymous
[The common definition of estimate is] "An estimate is the most optimistic prediction that has a non-zero probability of coming true" . . .
Tom DeMarco
Accepting this definition leads irrevocably toward a method called what's-the-earliest- date-by-which-you-can't-prove-you-won't-be- finished estimating.
In programming, everything we do is a special case of something more general -- and often we know it too quickly.
Alan J. Perlis
When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
Alan J. Perlis
C++ has its place in the history of programming languages. Just as Caligula has his place in the history of the Roman Empire.
Robert Firth
We kid ourselves if we think that the ratio of procedure to data in an active data-base system can be made arbitrarily small or even kept small.
Alan J. Perlis
If you get it free, it is worthless. If you pay for it, it has value. If you build it yourself, it is priceless.
Raj More
Let the code run free, if it needs to be debugged, it will come back.
Anonymous
Mostly, when you see programmers, they aren't doing anything. One of the attractive things about programmers is that you cannot tell whether or not they are working simply by looking at them. Very often they're sitting there seemingly drinking coffee and gossiping, or just staring into space. What the programmer is trying to do is get a handle on all the individual and unrelated ideas that are scampering around in his head.
Charles M Strauss
The real money isn't in the software. It's in the service you build with that software.
Jeff Atwood