The general principle for complexity design is this: Think locally, act locally. -- Richard P. Gabriel & Ron Goldman, Mob Software: The Erotic Life of Code

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).

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)

The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out. -- Donald Norman

We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives. -- George Leonard, Mastery.

PI seconds is a nanocentury. -- [fact]

The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it. ~Henry Ford

It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln

If you’re going through hell keep going. ~Winston Churchill

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.