“The economics of television syndication and DVD sales mean that there's a tremendous financial pressure to make programs that can be watched multiple times, revealing new nuances and shadings on the third viewing. Meanwhile, the Web has created a forum for annotation and commentary that allows more complicated shows to prosper, thanks to the fan sites where each episode of shows like 'Lost' or 'Alias' is dissected with an intensity usually reserved for Talmud scholars.” MeanShowsLostFansTelevisionProgramEconomicsThirdsPressureFinancialComplicatedThanksIntensityScholarEpisodesMultipleSiteRevealingReservedCommentaryNuanceDvdsForumsAliasesAnnotationFinancial Pressure Author:Steven Johnson
“PhotoShop is a program I use all the time with my 2D stuff. And that's an extraordinary program - you really can do anything there, and I've never hit my head on the ceiling. The 3D stuff is incredibly complicated, monstrously complicated, but for the things that I want to do, I've found very simple and interesting ways, I hope, of making images without getting tied up too much in the maps and technicalities.” WayWantUseFoundStuffCan DoSimpleInterestingToo MuchProgramExtraordinaryComplicatedMapsTiedCeilingsTied UpInteresting WaysPhotoshopTechnicalities Author:Dave McKean
“Important thing about myth is that it's not just something that you believe, a myth is essentially a program for action. And unless you translate a mythical story, or a doctrine out of the church, into practical action, it just remains incomprehensible. Rather like the rules of a board game which seem very sort of dull and complicated and incomprehensible until you pick up the dice and start to play, when everything falls into place.” BelieveImportantPlayStoriesSeemsActionFallGamesChurchPicksProgramRemainsImportant ThingsComplicatedMythPracticalsDoctrineBoardsDullTranslateDiceFall Into PlaceBoard GamesEverything Falls Into Place Author:Karen Armstrong
“Programmers are always surrounded by complexity; we cannot avoid it.... If our basic tool, the language in which we design and code our programs, is also complicated, the language itself becomes part of the problem rather than part of its solution.” IfsProblemLanguageDesignSolutionsProgramToolsComplicatedCodeComplexityProgrammers Author:Tony Hoare
“Over time I learned that there are two very different satisfactions that you can have in your life. One is the satisfaction of becoming skilled at something. It almost doesn't matter what the terrain is. There is a deep, soul-feeding resonance in mastery itself, whether in teaching, writing a complicated software program, coaching a baseball team, or marshalling a group of people to start a new business.” PeopleWritingTwoDifferentSoulMatterGroupsTeamTeachingBecomingProgramBaseballSatisfactionComplicatedCoachingSoftwareMasteryFeedingResonanceTerrainNew BusinessBaseball TeamDeep SoulTeaching Writing Author:Atul Gawande
“Software is inherently complicated. If you say to somebody I want an airline reservation system, to really say what you want in terms of overbooking and fares, and different airlines communicating with each or schedule changes, it's immensely complex. And so you can't write a program that's any simpler than that full specification.” IfsWantWritingDifferentTermProgramComplexesCommunicateComplicatedWhat You WantSoftwareSchedulesAirlineReservationsSpecifications Author:Bill Gates
“I'm less interested in uniqueness than in goodness. I see so many concerts where the program notes are more interesting than the music. I remember talking to one composer who went through the most complicated mathematical algorithm to generate some material from scratch. It took weeks and weeks, and he came up with a C major chord. For me, honesty is more interesting than originality.” RememberInterestingTalkingWeekHonestyMaterialsGoodnessMajorsProgramNotesComplicatedMathematicalConcertsComposerOriginalityUniquenessScratchesChordsAlgorithms Author:Anna Meredith
“There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.” WayFirstsTwoDifficultSimpleDesignHumorousProgramMethodObviousWittyComplicatedOne WayCodeComplexityProgrammingSoftwareEngineeringTwo WaysProgrammersComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceDeficiencyProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageDevelopersSoftware EngineeringSoftware DesignComputer ProgrammersSoftware DevelopmentComputer SoftwareSimplicity In DesignFunny ComputerProgramming FunnySimplicity And EleganceSimple And ComplexProgress And Development Author:Tony Hoare
“The internal processes of muscle growth are seriously complicated, people devote their lives to it, but the external processes that kick it off, the things in your control can be distilled down to a few principles: Get stronger in the right rep ranges, eat appropriately, commit to the program and consistently work hard at it.” PeopleHardProcessGrowthPrinciplesHard WorkTrainingProgramStrongerComplicatedCommitRangeKicksMusclesInternalsConsistentlyWorkoutMotivational WorkoutBodybuilding Training Author:Daniel Roberts
“Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.” CommonHalfProgramComplicatedProgrammingAdsBugsComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageImplementationLisp Author:Philip Greenspun
“Computers are famous for being able to do complicated things starting from simple programs.” AbleSimpleComputerProgramStartingComplicatedClassroomStarting OverComplicated ThingsParallelogram Author:Seth Lloyd