Cory Althoff > Quotes

“You are not reading this book because a teacher assigned it to you, you are reading it because you have a desire to learn, and wanting to learn is the biggest advantage you can have.”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Also, don't forget that some of the most successful people in the world are self-taught programmers. Steve Wozniak, the founder of Apple, is a self-taught programmer. So is Margaret Hamilton, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work on NASA's Apollo Moon missions; David Karp, founder of Tumblr; Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter; and Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram.”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“to stay motivated: give money to a friend or family member with instructions to return it to you upon completion of your goal within a given time frame, or donate it to an organization you dislike if you fail.”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Functions should do one thing. They should do it well. They should do it only." —Robert C. Martin”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be..."
—Frederick Brooks”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program."
~Linus Torvalds”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Beware of ‘the real world.' A speaker's appeal to it is always an invitation not to challenge his tacit assumptions."
—Edsger W. Dijkstra”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses." —Bjarne Stroustrup”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." —Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“5”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“The object-oriented programming paradigm also addresses the problems that arise in procedural programming by eliminating global state, but instead of storing state in functions, it is stored in objects.”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Treat your code like poetry and take it to the edge of the bare minimum."
—Ilya Dorman”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Every programmer is an author."
—Sercan Leylek”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is."
—Isaac Asimov”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“I object to doing things that computers can do."
—Olin Shivers”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live."
—John Woods”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages." —George Washington”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“An algorithm is like a recipe."
—Waseem Latif”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“It's all talk until the code runs."
—Ward Cunningham”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“All I have learned, I learned from books."
—Abraham Lincoln”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes myelin, and myelin makes perfect." —Daniel Coyle”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order-of-magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design, or problem-solving ability."
—Randall E. Stross”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“The first function has side effects because it relies on data outside of itself, and changes data outside of the current function—it incremented a global variable. The second function does not have side effects because it does not rely on or change any data outside of itself.”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program." —Linus Torvalds”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“I can't think of a job I'd rather do than computer programming. All day, you create patterns and structure out of the formless void, and you solve dozens of smaller puzzles along the way."
—Peter Van Der Linden”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Good design adds value faster than it adds cost."
—Thomas C. Gale”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“It's the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation." —Andy Hertzfeld”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“Sometimes a piece of code is long and takes up more than one line. Code surrounded by three quotes, parentheses, brackets and braces can extend to a new line:”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally

“The fool wonders, the wise man asks."
—Benjamin Disraeli”
― Cory Althoff, The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally