I would rather be an optimist and be wrong than a pessimist who proves to be right. The former sometimes wins, but never the latter. -- "Hoots"

While I’ve always appreciated beautiful code, I share Jonathan’s concern about studying it too much. I think studying beauty in music and painting has led us to modern classical music and painting that the majority of us just don’t get. Beauty can be seen when it emerges, but isn’t something to strive for in isolation of a larger context. In the software world, the larger context would be the utility of the software to the end user. -- [A comment on a blog]

A CS professor once explained recursion as follows: A child couldn't sleep, so her mother told her a story about a little frog, who couldn't sleep, so the frog's mother told her a story about a little bear, who couldn't sleep, so the bear's mother told her a story about a little weasel... who fell asleep. ...and the little bear fell asleep; ...and the little frog fell asleep; ...and the child fell asleep. -- everything2.com

I was talking recently to a friend who teaches at MIT. His field is hot now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be graduate students. "A lot of them seem smart," he said. "What I can't tell is whether they have any kind of taste." -- Paul Graham

Give up control. You never really had it anyway. -- How to fail: 25 secrets learned through failure

Philosophy: the finding of bad reasons for what one believes by instinct. -- Brave New World (paraphrased)

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. –Grandma Moses

Change your thoughts and you change your world. –Norman Vincent Peale

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle