Programming Wisdom

“Beyond basic mathematical aptitude, the difference between good programmers and great programmers is verbal ability.” — Marissa Mayer

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde

“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 best programs are the ones written when the programmer is supposed to be working on something else.” — Melinda Varian

“The best learners are the people who push through the discomfort of being objectively bad at something.” — Tommy Collison

“Security is like Tetris: Your successes disappear but your failures pile up.” — Mikko Hyppönen

“We are no longer securing computers—we are securing society.” — Mikko Hyppönen

“Rarely is anyone thanked for the work they did to prevent the disaster that didn’t happen.” — Mikko Hyppönen

“Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.” — Laurence J. Peter

“I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits.” — Kent Beck

“Sometimes, the elegant implementation is a function. Not a method. Not a class. Not a framework. Just a function.” — John Carmack

“The most important single aspect of software development is to be clear about what you are trying to build.” — Bjarne Stroustrup

“Learn not to add too many features right away, and get the core idea built and tested.” — Leah Culver

“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things.” — Grace Hopper

“The mark of a mature programmer is willingness to throw out code you spent time on when you realize it’s pointless.” — Bram Cohen

“Maintenance is not a discrete activity, but a routine part of the entire development process.” — The Pragmatic Programmer

“Great software today is often preferable to perfect software tomorrow.” — The Pragmatic Programmer

“My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared.” — P. J. Plauger

“Ten doublings is about a thousand, twenty doublings is about a million, and thirty doublings is about a billion.” — Jon Bentley

“Any time a programmer makes a decision about how to deal with data, how to average it or clean it, you’re imparting more of your own bias on it.” — Hannah Fry