Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. -- William Strunk, Jr. (The Elements of Style)
Being a programmer is the same way. The only way to be a good programmer is to write code. When you realize you haven't been writing much code lately, and it seems like all you do is brag about code you wrote in the past, and people start looking at you funny while you're shooting your mouth off, realize it's because they know. They might not even know they know, but they know. So, yes, doing what you love brings success, and by all means, throw yourself a nice big party, buy yourself a nice car, soak up the adulation of an adoring crowd. Then shut the fuck up and get back to work. -- Sincerity Theory
But what is it good for? -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968
A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker makes clear what is obscure. -- Hugh Kingsmill
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. -- Donald Knuth
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit. -- Anonymous
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou
To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can’t just accept the ones you like. ~Mike Gafka
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. ~Steve Jobs
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach