“One accurate measurement is worth more than a thousand expert opinions.”

        — Grace Hopper

“It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way.”

        — Richard Hamming

“Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defence against complexity.”

        — David Gelernter

“This is everything we asked for but not what we wanted.”

        — Unknown, from Clients From Hell #

“The problem with Test-Driven Development is that you have to think about what you want the code to do before you write it. And that ruins the surprise.”

        — Jason Gorman

“The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late”

        — Seymour Cray

“Programming is 10% science, 20% ingenuity, and 70% getting the ingenuity to work with the science.”

        — Unknown

“Being a creator of software systems is like being a god. Only without the omnipotence, omnipresence or omniscience.”

        — Brent Snook (@brentsnook)

“A computer without COBOL and Fortran is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard.”

“Writing code a computer can understand is science. Writing code other programmers can understand is an art.”

        — Jason Gorman (@jasongorman)

“Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defence against complexity.”

        — David Gelernter

“A common fallacy is to assume authors of incomprehensible code will somehow be able to express themselves lucidly and clearly in comments.”

        — Kevlin Henney

“Grant me the serenity to accept the code I cannot change, the courage to refactor the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

        — Unknown

“Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.”

        — Rich Kulawiec

If you ever code something that “feels like a hack but it works,” just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking.

        — Ben Driscoll (@daisyowl)

“Remember, good code is like a good joke: It needs no explanation.”

        — 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

“Git gets easier once you get the basic idea that branches are homeomorphic endofunctors mapping submanifolds of a Hilbert space.”

        — Isaac Wolkerstorfer (@agnoster)

“I know it’s impossible, but can you do it anyway?”

        — Unknown, from Clients From Hell

“If you can put an axe through it, it’s hardware; if you want to put an axe through it, it’s software.”

        — Unknown