“From the earliest days of Apple I realized that we thrived when we created intellectual property. If people copied or stole our software, we’d be out of business. If it weren’t protected, there’d be no incentive for us to make … Continue reading
Why is programming fun?
“Why is programming fun? The sheer joy of making things. As the child delights in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things.” ~ Frederick P. Brooks, The Mythical Man Month
On finicking with trifles
“To anyone who finds that linguistic study is a worthless finicking with trifles, I would reply that life consists of little things; the important matter is to see them largely.” ~ Otto Jespersen [From The Chronicle via Daring Fireball]
On leadership and authenticity
Jack Welch, from his book Winning had this to say about authenticity and leadership: A person cannot make hard decisions, hold unpopular positions, or stand tall for what he believes unless he knows who he is and feels comfortable in … Continue reading
Default corporate stupidity
Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, in an interview with The New York Times We always try to ask whether a particular policy exists because it’s a default piece of corporate stupidity that everyone expects you to have, or does it … Continue reading
On writing and coding
Michael Lopp, Please Learn to Write Writing appears more forgiving because there is no compiler or interpreter catching your its/it’s issues or reminding you of the rules regarding that or which. Here’s the rub: there is a compiler and it’s … Continue reading
On farming and product
Kristin Kimball, The Dirty Life A farm is a manipulative creature. There is no such thing as finished. Work comes in a stream and has no end. There are only the things that must be done now and things that … Continue reading
The job of art
“The job of art is to chase ugliness away.” ~ Bono
Why doing something new is hard
“There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, … Continue reading
The magic line of code
“What we found a long time ago was the line of code that a developer can write the fastest, the line of code that a developer can maintain the cheapest and the line of code that never breaks for the … Continue reading