Noteworthy Quotes

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.

A lack of clarity in specification is one of the surest signs of a deficiency in the program it describes, and the two faults must be removed simultaneously before the project is embarked upon.

Make it work. Make it right. Make it fast.

First you learn the value of abstraction, then you learn the cost of abstraction, then you're ready to engineer.

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction.

Sometimes, the elegant implementation is just a function. Not a method. Not a class. Not a framework. Just a function.

There is always an urge to reference any data that is duplicated, but in so many cases, duplication is better than adding pointers.

Number of source files traversed during execution would be a useful complexity metric for functions. Textual locality matters.

For performance reasons, everything will be public static final.

Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.

I think the lack of reusability comes in object-oriented languages, not functional languages. Because the problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle.

If you have referentially transparent code, if you have pure functions — all the data comes in its input arguments and everything goes out and leave no state behind — it’s incredibly reusable.

Failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it's going to work, it's not an experiment.

Your margin is my opportunity.

Now I have to tell you something, and I mean this in the best and most inoffensive way possible: I don’t believe in process.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

If something's important enough, you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure.

For my part, I will never give up and I mean never.

Physics is true, everything else is debatable. And even physics is questionable.

Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.

Real artists ship.

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior.

Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.

Promotions may win quarters, innovation wins decades.

My best technical skill isn't coding, it's a willingness to ask questions, in front of everyone, about what I don't understand.

The hardest problem in computer science is fighting the urge to solve a different, more interesting problem than the one at hand.

There are only two hard problems in distributed systems:

2. Exactly-once delivery
1. Guaranteed order of messages
2. Exactly-once delivery

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

Do everything you ask of those you command.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

A blank cheque kills creativity.

It pays to have big dreams but low overhead.