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Joel Spolsky

Joel Spolsky Quotes

Software Engineer

Joel Spolsky is a renowned software engineer and entrepreneur, born in 1965. He is known for his profound insights and rich practical experience in the field of software development. Spolsky worked as a software engineer at Microsoft, where he participated in the development of several well-known products, including Excel and Word. Later, he founded Fog Creek Software and Trello, both of which achieved great success.

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All Ifs Programming Software Code Programmers Products Way Business Cost Customers Design Important Knows People Software Development Usability Values Want Writing Behave

Famous Joel Spolsky Quotes

“Watching nonprogrammers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn’t know how to surf trying to surf. Even if he has great advisers standing on the shore telling him what to do, he still falls off the board again and again.”

Ifs Knows Trying Stills Running Fall Company Know How Standing Boards Shore Software Again And Again Surf Adviser Software Company

Author:Joel Spolsky

“If you are a programmer working in 2006 and you don’t know the basics of characters, character sets, encodings, and Unicode, and I catch you, I’m going to punish you by making you peel onions for six months in a submarine.”

Ifs Knows Character Months Six Six Months Programmers Basics Onions Submarines

Author:Joel Spolsky

“Never put yourself in a position that will put yourself at risk if you make the wrong decision. We spent cash on everything. It's fashionable to make 'bet the company' decisions, but don't do it.”

Ifs Decision Company Risk Position Cash Fashionable Wrong Decision

Author:Joel Spolsky

“If you can't understand the spec for a new technology, don't worry: nobody else will understand it either, and the technology won't be that important.”

Ifs Important Technology Worry New Technology Specs

Author:Joel Spolsky

“So if you want to get things done, you positively have to understand at any given point in time what is the most important thing to get done right now and if you're not doing it, you're not making progress at the fastest possible rate.”

Ifs Want Important Done Action Given Progress Right Now Important Things Rate Positively Things Done

Author:Joel Spolsky

“Not having a schedule is OK if it's your PhD and you plan to spend 14 years on the thing, or if you're a programmer working on the next Duke Nukem and we'll ship when we're good and ready. But for almost any kind of real business, you just have to know how long things are going to take, because developing a product costs money.”

Ifs Knows Years Kind Long Real Next Know How Plans Ready Products Cost Ships Developing Programming Schedules Programmers Dukes Phds

Author:Joel Spolsky

“Something is usable if it behaves exactly as expected.”

Ifs Expected Behave Programming

Author:Joel Spolsky

“If your goals is to produce something of permanent value, you start to think differently about you want on the site.”

Ifs Thinking Want Values Goal Produce Entrepreneur Permanent Site

Author:Joel Spolsky

“An idea isn't worth that much. It's the execution of the idea that has value. If you can't convince one other person that this is something to devote your life to, then it's not worth it.”

Ifs Persons Ideas Values Convince Execution Worth It Not Worth It

Author:Joel Spolsky

“If something seems possible, that's probably because someone is already doing it. When something seems that it can't possibly work, nobody tries it. Real innovation happens when someone tries anyway, overlooking an obvious flaw, and finds a way to make an idea work.”

Ifs Way Trying Ideas Real Seems Happens Innovation Obvious Flaws Overlooking

Author:Joel Spolsky

“Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other.”

Ifs Would Be Easy Written Streets Quiet Clean Ugly Plenty Beer Engineers Bathroom Lit Pouring Menus Nightclubs Bartender Coyotes Usability Coyote Ugly

Author:Joel Spolsky

About the Author

Born: 1965
Known for: Software Engineer
Quotes: 43

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Books & Sources

Joel on SoftwareRelated source material

User Interface Design for ProgrammersRelated source material

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