We remember what we learn when we care about performing better and when we believe that what we have been asked to do is representative of reality. -- Roger Schank, Engines for Education
To do something well you have to love it. So to the extent you can preserve hacking as something you love, you're likely to do it well. Try to keep the sense of wonder you had about programming at age 14. If you're worried that your current job is rotting your brain, it probably is. -- Paul Graham.
A hacker on a roll may be able to produce–in a period of a few months–something that a small development group (say, 7-8 people) would have a hard time getting together over a year. IBM used to report that certain programmers might be as much as 100 times as productive as other workers, or more. -- Peter Seebach
A guideline in the process of stepwise refinement should be the principle to decompose decisions as much as possible, to untangle aspects which are only seemingly interdependent, and to defer those decisions which concern details of representation as long as possible. -- Niklaus Wirth
Training research shows that if you get speed now you can get quality later. But if you don't get speed you will never get quality in the long run. -- Philip Greenspun
For complex systems, the compiler and development environment need to be in the same language that its supporting. It's the only way to grow code. -- Alan Kay
You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals. ~Booker T. Washington
Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. ~Bill Gates
Education costs money. But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser