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)

Some people suggest that machines would be friendlier if input could be in a natural language. But natural language is probably the worst kind of input because it can be quite ambiguous. The process of retrieving information from the computer would be so time-consuming that you would be better off spending that time getting the information directly from an expert. -- Gary Kildall (inventor of CP/M, one of the first OS for the micro).

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

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

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. -- Earl of Chesterfield

The job of a leader today is not to create followers. It’s to create more leaders. -- Ralph Nader

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. ~Anonymous

14.Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain

It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison

The best revenge is massive success. –Frank Sinatra