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https://github.com/tmcw/quotes

guiding principles.
https://github.com/tmcw/quotes

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guiding principles.

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> You cannot get a simple system by adding

> simplicity to a complex system.



- http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2012-March/065087.html



> when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability.

> your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.



- http://favstar.fm/users/_why/status/881768089



> one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.



- [Jeff Bezos](https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S27/52/51O99/index.xml)



> solutions are not formed in the negative space of explained problems



- [me](https://twitter.com/tmcw/status/401771277007867904)



> Abstraction is meant to be used for efficiency, not ignorance



- Me ([ref](http://wildisthewind.com/2013/07/the-value-of-computer-science/))



> Good enough is perfect



- Aaron Straup Cope http://www.aaronland.info/talks/where2011/#17



> A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.



- [Douglas Adams](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6711-a-common-mistake-that-people-make-when-trying-to-design)



> Chastising the Spanish artist for painting unrepresentative cubistic abstractions, a layman withdrew a photograph of his wife from his pocket and held it up to Picasso with the admonition, “Why can’t you paint realistically, like that?” “Is that what your wife really looks like?” Picasso asked. “Yes,” replied the man. “Well, she’s very small, and quite flat.”



---



> A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. 



[Gall's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall%27s_law#Gall.27s_law)



---



> The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.



[DFW, This is Water](http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html)



---



> All things truly wicked start from innocence.



[Ernest Hemingway, a Moveable Feast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Moveable_Feast)



---



> The bad news is, you gain perspective by having incredibly shitty things happen to you and the people you love. Nature has made it so that perspective is only delivered in bulk quantities. A railcar of perspective arrives and dumps itself on your lawn when all you needed was a microgram.



[Maciej](https://blog.pinboard.in/2014/07/pinboard_turns_five/)



> A one-person business is an exercise in long-term anxiety management, so I would say if you are already an anxious person, go ahead and start a business. You're not going to feel any worse. You've already got the main skill set of staying up and worrying, so you might as well make some money.



[Maciej](https://blog.pinboard.in/2019/07/i_cant_stop_winning/)



---



> Nodding the head does not row the boat



[Irish proverb](http://nepab.com/general/IrishProberbs.htm)



> Brevity is... wit



[The Simpsons](https://bestepisodeever.wordpress.com/tag/8f01/)



---



> In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.



---



> Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming



- [Brian Kernighan](http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html#id2877537)



---



> Binstock: You seem fastidious about always giving people credit for their work.



> Kay: Well, I'm an old-fashioned guy. And I also happen to believe in history. The lack of interest, the disdain for history is what makes computing not-quite-a-field.



- [Alan Kay](http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-with-alan-kay/240003442)



---



> You have no idea how fortunate that makes you, liking people. Being liked. Having that facility. That lightness, that charm. I don’t have it. I never did. - Richard Nixon



- Leuchtenburg, William E.. The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton (p. 476). Oxford University Press.



---



> Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.



- [Albert Camus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus), Notebook IV in Notebooks: 1942-1951



---



> The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.



- [Eric Fromm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Fromm)



---



> A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. 



- [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/353571-a-foolish-consistency-is-the-hobgoblin-of-little-minds-adored)



---



> You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”



- [Edgar Mitchell, after Apollo 14](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Mitchell)



---



> I quickly realized that timing is the critical factor in the success of inventions. Most technology projects fail not because the technology doesn’t work, but because the timing is wrong – not all of the enabling factors are at play where they are needed.



- [Ray Kurzweil](http://crnano.org/interview.kurzweil.htm)



---



> Repetition legitimizes.



> If you hit something wrong, it sounds like a mistake. But if you hit something wrong again, people are forced to contextualize it differently and start hearing the meaning in the wrongness, and you can really lean into this. It takes a great musical ear and great skill to really lean into the wrong notes and make it sound interesting.



- [Adam Neely](https://youtu.be/LlmTWlaWs_o?t=2m3s)



---



> In conclusion leaving is easy



> When you've got some place you need to be



- [Bill Callahan](https://genius.com/Bill-callahan-riding-for-the-feeling-lyrics)



---



> By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?



- Steve Jobs



---



> There must always be an end in view, and the end must not be final.



- Eliel Saarinen



---



> A critic enters the battlefield after the war and shoots the wounded.



- [Murray Kempton](https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/a_critic_enters_the_battlefield_after_the_war)



---



> Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.



- E.L. Doctorow



---



> As my aunt Grace, who lived in the Ozarks, put it, “I get what I want, but I know what to want.”



* [The Joy of Being a Woman in Her 70s](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/opinion/sunday/women-older-happiness.html)



---



> Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: Incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is enough.



* [Morgan Housel](https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-highest-forms-of-wealth/)



---



> People like to say, “It’s the government’s problem! They need to regulate the fossil fuel and industrial food industries.” Yes. Do you see that happening anytime soon? This is a serious question, and I would like someone to tell me I’m wrong— that they’re on it up in D.C.



* [Alicia Kennedy, On Veganism](https://www.aliciakennedy.news/p/on-veganism)



---



> The purpose of a system is what it does



* [Stafford Beer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does)



---



> I don't care that they stole my idea… I care that they don't have any of their own



* [Nikola Tesla](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/446852-i-don-t-care-that-they-stole-my-idea)



---



> No man who owns his own house and lot can be a Communist. He has too much to do.



* William J. Levitt, 1948



---



> I'm almost 50, and here is the best thing I have learned so far: every strange thing you've ever been into, every failed hobby or forgotten instrument, everything you have ever learned will come back to you, will serve you when you need it. No love, however brief, is wasted.



* [Louise Miller](https://twitter.com/louisethebaker/status/1379961867922239497?lang=en)



---



> We have been so desensitized by a hundred and fifty years of ceaselessly expanding technical prowess that we think nothing less complex and showy than a computer or a jet bomber deserves to be called “technology” at all. As if linen were the same thing as flax — as if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers — as if steel saucepans with copper bottoms and fleece vests spun from recycled glass grew on trees, and we just picked them when they were ripe…



[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about-technology?utm_source=thesephist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=create-things-that-come-alive)



---



> I urge you to please notice when you are happy.



– Kurt Vonnegut



---



> You can easily find out what my music sounds like. I will not try to describe it.



- Phil Elverum



---



> The reason that most of us are unhappy most of the time is that we set our goals not for the person we’re going to be when we reach them, we set our goals for the person we are when we set them.



– [Dan Gilbert](https://www.swiss-miss.com/2011/08/coudal-on-goals.html)



> I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.



- [Steve Jobs](https://putsomethingback.stevejobsarchive.com/)



---



> We suffer more often in imagination than in reality



- Seneca



---



> Gapitalism likes to remind you that you need to earn the life you've already been granted



- [Mike Montiero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2dFXDMwe4)



---



> If people cannot write well they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.



- [George Orwell](https://writeordiemag.com/features/unpacking-george-orwells-six-elementary-rules-for-writing)



## See also



* [Bret Victor - Quotes](http://worrydream.com/quotes/)