Quotessence
Home / Topics / Programmers Quotes

Programmers Quotes

Browse 337 quotes about Programmers.

Related topics

ProgrammingComputerComputer ProgrammersComputer ProgrammingSoftwareProgramming LanguagesProgramComputer LanguagePeopleIfsCodeThinkingLanguageProgramming FunnyTechnologySoftware DesignComputer ScienceComputer SoftwareKnowsSoftware EngineeringShouldWayUseWritingSimplicityLearningWorldUsersWantComplexityDesignProblemRealFirstsKindMadeSimplicity In DesignTryingDoneErrorsLevelsNeedsStructureYearsCompanyDebuggingFunny ComputerImportantNumbersReasonSoftware DevelopmentToolsTwoUsedCompetentDesignerDoeEngineersHas BeensHelpingLinesLooksMayScientist

Programmers Quotes

“She had a theory that the fear of getting in trouble was what made her not as good a programmer and that, in fact, it was all linked to testosterone, and that was why there were more guy programmers than women. It was a very hazy theory, and she didn't like it, but she had pretty much convinced herself it was true, although she couldn't bear to think of sharing it with anybody, because it was a lot better to think that there were social reasons why girls didn't usually become code monkeys than to think there were biological reasons.”

MenFearWomenGenderProgrammingBiologyProgrammersTestosteroneAfter The Apocalypse
Author:Maureen F. McHugh
Create image

“The thing about Web companies is there's always something severely fucked-up. There is always an outage, always lost data, always compromised customer information, always a server going offline. You work with these clugey internal tools and patch together work-arounds to compensate for the half-assed, rushed development, and after a while the fucked-upness of the whole enterprise becomes the status quo. VPs insecure that they're not as in touch as they need to be with conditions on the ground insert themselves into projects midstream and you get serious scope creep. You present to the world this image that you're a buttoned-down tech company with everything in its right place but once you're on the other side of the firewall it looks like triage time in an emergency room, 24/7. Systems break down, laptops go into the blue screen of death, developers miskey a line of code, error messages appear that mean absolutely nothing. The instantaneousness with which you can fix stuff creates a culture that works by the seat of its pants. I swear the whole Web was built by virtue of developers fixing one mistake after another, constantly forced to compensate for the bugginess of their code.”

BusinessTechnologyDevelopmentInternetCodeProblemsBugsEmergenciesProgrammersDevelopersCodingWebWorld Wide WebTech CompaniesSoftware Bugs
Book:Blueprints of the Afterlife
Create image

“There are the lower level gods and goddesses, who dwell in the lower astral realm, such as those found in belief systems such as Santeria, Vodun, Palo Mayombe (or Palo Mallombe), Santa Muerte, Candomblé, Esú or Eshú (in Yoruba language "sphere"), Kimbanda and Ifa. There are also intermediate spirits such as saints, angels and archangels; and a still higher being called by various names such as: Yahweh, El and Allah, who is the Demiurge. The programmers of this simulation also created demons and fallen angels.”

AngelsDemonsProgrammersVirtual RealityArchangelsSimulation HypothesisSanta MuertePolo MayombeVodun
Book:Alien Parasites: 40 Gnostic Truths to Defeat the Archon Invasion!
Create image

“Programmers are isolated. They sit in their cubicle; they don't think about the larger picture. To my mind, a programmer is not an engineer, because an engineer is somebody who starts with a social problem that an organization or a society has and says, "OK, here's this problem that we have- how can we solve it?" The engineer comes up with a clever, cost-effective solution to address that problem, builds it, tests it to make sure it solves the problem. That's engineering.”

ProgrammingEngineeringEngineersProgrammers
Author:Philip Greenspun
Create image

“Yeah, young coders abound, but mostly only string together preassembled digital beads, and even today's brightest young nerdlets aren't immune to eventual wrinkles. As for real experts, well, as the dawn of the computer age recedes, so too have the hairlines of your true computer wizards, the males I mean. We females never change, we are eternally young.”

ProgrammersStereotypesHackersStem GirlsComputer NerdsGirl GeeksGirl NerdsSoftware Developers
Book:Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Volume 133, Issue 1 & 2, January-February 2013
Create image

“... bright young men of disheveled appearance, often with sunken glowing eyes, can be seen sitting at computer consoles, their arms tensed and waiting to fire their fingers, already poised to strike, at the buttons and keys on which their attention seems to be riveted as a gambler’s on the rolling dice. When not so transfixed, they often sit at tables strewn with computer printouts over which they pore like possessed students of a cabbalistic text. They work until they nearly drop, twenty, thirty hours at a time. Their food, if they arrange it, is brought to them: coffee, Cokes, sandwiches. If possible, they sleep on cots near the printouts. Their rumpled clothes, their unwashed and unshaven faces, and their uncombed hair all testify that they are oblivious to their bodies and to the world in which they move. These are computer bums, compulsive programmers ...”

ProgrammersCompulsive
Author:Joseph Weizenbaum
Create image

“We're programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We're not excited by incremental renovation: tinkering, improving, planting flower beds. There's a subtle reason why programmers always want to throw away the code and start over. The reason is that they think the old code is a mess. And here is the interesting observation: They are probably wrong. The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a cardinal, fundamental law of programming: It's harder to read code than to write it.”

CodeProgrammersRewrite
Book:Joel on Software
Create image

“The corollary of constant change is ignorance. This is not often talked about: we computer experts barely know what we're doing. We're good at fussing and figuring out. We function well in a sea of unknowns. Our experience has only prepared us to deal with confusion. A programmer who denies this is probably lying, or else is densely unaware of himself.”

KnowsWellsLyingDealsSeaIgnoranceComputerFunctionConstantPreparedDenyConfusionExpertsProgrammersFussing
Book:Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents
Create image

“The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.”

NeedsHumansRoomsBehindsDemandLowsSittingProgramMachinesNotesClarityPostsManifestationGradesCoveredDisorderYellowDesksStereotypeDeclarationProgrammersCokeAnnoyanceHuman ThoughtMessinessGrowlingPost It Notes
Author:Ellen Ullman
Create image

“John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio. John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects. We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.”

YearsWellsGamesWishTechnologyCuttingGroupsDevelopmentProjectsTraditionEdgesCurrentsStudiosBrilliantFortunateColleaguesProgrammersDepartureResignedCutting Edge
Author:Tim Willits
Create image

“Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%.”

ThinkingShouldEvilOpportunityStrongForgetWorryAmountWasteNegativeProgramRootsImpactCriticalSpeedEnormousEfficiencyProgrammersMaintenancePrematureOptimizationDebugging
Author:Donald Knuth
Create image

“When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

IfsThinkingKnowsProblemBeautifulPoliticsBeautyCreativityEconomyDesignComputerSolutionsProgramSolveFinishedArchitectureMathematicalLiberalismProgrammingConcentrationSoftwareEngineeringProblem SolvingSpectacularProgrammersComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageMath And ScienceProblems And SolutionsSolution To A ProblemBeing BeautifulNieceSoftware DesignComputer ProgrammersArchitecture And DesignGreat ScienceSoftware DevelopmentScience PhysicsArchitecture DesignSolved ProblemsSimplicity In DesignTruth And BeautyBeautiful ArtProduct DesignArchitecture And ArtMath ProblemsUrban DesignMathematical ProblemsMathematical BeautyDesign WorkEngineering InspirationalBeauty ProductsLife And BeautyBeautiful DesignHidden Beauty
Author:R. Buckminster Fuller
Create image

“The difference between the best worker on computer hardware and the average may be 2 to 1, if you're lucky. With automobiles, maybe 2 to 1. But in software, it's at least 25 to 1. The difference between the average programmer and a great one is at least that. The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world. And when you're in a field where the dynamic range is 25 to 1, boy, does it pay off.”

PeopleIfsWorldMayDoeDifferencesPaySecretBoysGoneFieldsLuckyComputerWorkersAverageRangeLengthSoftwareExceptionalAutomobileProgrammersGreat OnesHardwareSecret Of My Success
Author:Steve Jobs
Create image

“I believe C++ instills fear in programmers, fear that the interaction of some details causes unpredictable results. Its unmanageable complexity has spawned more fear-preventing tools than any other language, but the solution should have been to create and use a language that does not overload the whole goddamn human brain with irrelevant details.”

ShouldBelieveHumansDoeHas BeensWholeUseLanguageI BelieveCausesResultsBrainSolutionsToolsShould HaveDetailsComplexityInteractionUnpredictableIrrelevantShould Have BeenProgrammersPreventingHuman BrainInstillOverload
Author:Erik Naggum
Create image

“You become a serious programmer by going through a stage where you are fully aware of the degree to which you know the specification, meaning both the explicit and the tacit specification of your language and of your problem. "Hey, it works most of the time" is the very antithesis of a serious programmer, and certain languages can only support code like that.”

KnowsProblemCertainLanguageSupportStageSeriousDegreesHeyCodeWhere You AreProgrammersExplicitAntithesisTacitSpecifications
Author:Erik Naggum
Create image