Abstraction is a form of data compression: absolutely necessary, because human short-term memory is so small, but the critically important aspect of abstraction is the algorithm that gets you from the name back to the "uncompressed" details. -- Bruce Wilder (blog post comment)

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

The choice of the university is mostly important for the piece of paper you get at the end. The education you get depends on you. -- Andreas Zwinkau

[Innovation] comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. -- Steve Jobs

My dream is that people adopt it on its own merits. We're not trying to bend Ruby on Rails to fit the enterprise, we're encouraging enterprises to bend to Ruby on Rails. Come if you like it, stay away if you don't. We're not going head over heels to accommodate the enterprise or to lure them away from Java. That's how you end up with Java, if you start bending to special interest groups. -- David Heinemeier Hansson (Ruby On Rails' creator)

Simplicity takes effort-- genius, even. -- Paul Graham

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

Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions. –Dalai Lama

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals. ~Booker T. Washington

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~Anonymous