Posts Tagged: quotes

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21
Nov 09

Quotes

“By knowing the past, experiencing the present, and embracing the future, we create ideas that make life better – We’re space150.”

“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that gets us in trouble. It’s the things we know that ain’t so.” – Artemus Ward

“The beatings will continue until morale improves”

“Documentation is not understanding, process is not discipline, formality is not skill.” – Jim Highsmith

“Instincts are your experience speaking without all that bothersome thinking.” – rands

“If monkey + typewriter + infinite time = Shakespeare, then I bet monkey + an IDE could get you MS Word in half the time.” – Jeff Patton

“pro tip: if people can glean what your presentation is about just by looking at your slides – you have a boring presentation.” – Garrick Van Buren

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mahatma Gandhi

The currency of today’s economy is knowledge. — President Obama (Education Speach, 11/2009)

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

Projects fail at the beginning, not at the end. – Pat Reed

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9
Nov 09

Wisdom of Twitter (ie, some good quotes)

Jim Highsmith (@jimhighsmith):
“Agility is the ability to think and learn rather than blindly following a recipe.”

Bob Marshall (@flowchainsensei):
“You really have no clue as to how much your business success depends on software, do you?” #neversaid

Ben Simo (@QualityFrog):
“Compliance with standards makes sense when & where interoperability is more important than innovation & improvement.”

Wil Harris (@wilharris)
“New Apple mouse proves not only does Steve think we are too dumb for two buttons, we can’t even handle one. A mouse with no buttons. Nice.”

Jared M. Spool (@jmspool):
“Remember, if you torture data long enough, you can get it to confess to anything you want.”

Jeff Patton (@jeffpatton)
“Requirements are the boundary between what I get to decide and what you get to decide. It’s a fuzzy discussion, or DMZ”

Esther Derby (@estherderby)
“ppl talk about commitment as if it is an act of will. commitment requires will AND time, resources, skill, authority”

Bob Marshall (@flowchainsensei):
“So you’re all far too busy politicking and CYA-ing to actually bother about delivering stuff to the paying customer?” #neversaid

37signals (@37signals)
“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” -Linus Pauling

Naresh Jain (@nashjain)
“Consistency is over-rated. Consistency is a big innovation killer. Let diversity & positive deviance help us explore better ways”

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8
Oct 09

WTFs/minute

A random collection of quotes (and a comic) I’ve enjoyed recently.

Uncle Bob Martin

  • “I’m not religious about TDD [Test Driven Development], I’m dogmatic; there’s no diety involved.”

Neil Ford

  • “The problem with software is that there is no credit limit on technical debt”
Carl Sagan
  • “We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.”
Thomas Edison
  • “Time is really the only capital any human being has, and the one thing he can’t afford to waste.”
E.F. Schumacker
  • “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”
Steve Jobs
  • “I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

—

code-review

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24
Aug 09

Productivity Dive Bomb

Abby has it exactly right:

“give me a challenge & I work harder, keep pushing right past that to Totally Unreasonable & watch productivity dive bomb”

Some challenges are OK. And they can be downright fun if you have the time to investigate, learn, and resolve them in an intelligent way.

Given the right environment, people will often rise to the challenge and do great things. But just because a some challenges lead to greater productivity in certain environments doesn’t mean that a) it’s sustainable, or b) that it works in every situation, or c) that its the best way to achieve greater productivity.

Build a collaborative environment that has reasonable goals, a good diversity of projects, supportive co-workers, and managers that mentor more than they measure, and I guarantee you’ll have productive employees.

And don’t even get me started on inane concepts like “stretch” goals.

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14
Aug 09

Nothing more Dreadful

Great quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who, according to George Eliot, was “Germany’s greatest man of letters… and the last true polymath to walk the earth.” Anyway, the quote:

“There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.”

I couldn’t agree more, and as far as it goes, think that good taste and thoughtful design trump features, marketing, and just about everything else.

[via Tim Elliott]

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