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Ward Cunningham

Ward Cunningham Quotes

Computer programmer

Ward Cunningham is a renowned computer programmer known for his contributions to the field of software engineering. He is most famous for inventing the concept of the wiki, a system for easy editing and sharing information, and has played a key role in the Agile Software Development movement.

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All Trying Computer Way Answers Asks Code Hard Made Path People

Famous Ward Cunningham Quotes

“Shipping first time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite. The danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on not-quite-right code counts as interest on that debt. Entire engineering organizations can be brought to a standstill under the debt load of an unconsolidated implementation, object-oriented or otherwise.”

Firsts Littles Long Interest Minutes Danger Objects Development First Time Organization Paid Debt Speed Code Engineering Load Implementation Shipping Standstill

Author:Ward Cunningham

“I don't claim to be a methodologist, but I act like one only because I do methodology to protect myself from crazy methodologists.”

Crazy Protect Claims Methodology

Author:Ward Cunningham

“Why have a locked wiki when you can instead just post static Web pages?”

Pages Posts Locked Static Web Page

Book:The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web

Source: The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web

“When I was at Tek, I was frustrated that computer hardware was being improved faster than computer software. I wanted to invent some software that was completely different, that would grow and change as it was used. That's how wiki came about.”

Different Wanted Used Grows Computer Faster Software Frustrated Hardware Computer Software

Author:Ward Cunningham

“Global collaboration is something that Wiki mastered in a small way and here we can master it in a big way.”

Way Bigs Masters Collaboration

Author:Ward Cunningham

“The shortest path to exceeding expectations doesn't generally pass through meeting expectations.”

Path Expectations Meetings Exceeding Expectations

Author:Ward Cunningham

“A wiki works best where you're trying to answer a question that you can't easily pose, where there's not a natural structure that's known in advance to what you need to know.”

Knows Needs Trying Natural Answers Known Structure

Author:Ward Cunningham

“And then there are difficulties. Computers are famous for difficulties. A difficulty is just a blockage from progress. You have to try a lot of things. When you finally find what works, it doesn't tell you a thing. It won't be the same tomorrow. Getting the computer to work is so often dealing with difficulties.”

Trying Progress Tomorrow Computer Difficulty Working It Blockage

Author:Ward Cunningham

“What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?”

Author:Ward Cunningham

“The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer.”

Way Asks Answers Internet Computer Best Way Posts Wrong Questioning Right Answers Wrong Answers

Author:Ward Cunningham

“When you get in situations where you cannot afford to make a mistake, it's very hard to do the right thing. So if you're trying to do the right thing, the right thing might be to eliminate the cost of making a mistake rather than try to guess what's right.”

Ifs Trying Hard Might Mistake Situation Cost Right Thing Making Mistakes

Author:Ward Cunningham

“Over and over, people try to design systems that make tomorrow's work easy. But when tomorrow comes it turns out they didn't quite understand tomorrow's work, and they actually made it harder.”

People Trying Made Turns Easy Design Tomorrow Harder Made It

Author:Ward Cunningham

“What is simplicity? Simplicity is the shortest path to a solution.”

Path Solutions Simplicity

Author:Ward Cunningham

“I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter. To just be able to make a decision and see what happens is tremendously empowering, but that means you have to set up the situation such that when something does go wrong, you can fix it.”

Mean Doe I Can Matter Happens Able Decision Situation Worry Empowering

Author:Ward Cunningham

“There's been an awful lot of discussion about what is or isn't simple, and people have gotten a pretty sophisticated notion of simplicity, but I'm not sure it has helped.”

People Simple Notion Simplicity Awful Discussion Not Sure Sophisticated

Author:Ward Cunningham

“When a manager asks for hard data, that's usually just his way of saying no.”

Way Hard Asks Managers Data Saying No

Author:Ward Cunningham

“Each routine you read turns out to be pretty much what you expected. You can call it beautiful code when the code also makes it look like the language was made for the problem.”

Looks Made Problem Beautiful Turns Language Expected Code Routine

Author:Ward Cunningham

About the Author

Born: May 26, 1949
Known for: Computer programmer
Quotes: 17

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