Gordon > Gordon's Quotes

“Beware of the corporate invasion of private memory.”
― Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

“If somebody wants to run for office, they had better to explain why they want to run for office. Wanting to be a candidate seems, in itself, reason for exclusion.”
― Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

“Premature optimization is the root of all evil.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms

“Of course bad code can be cleaned up. But it’s very expensive.”
― Robert C. Martin, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

“I’m very self-motivated,” she’d state with an assertiveness that she didn’t quite feel in her gut, and the HR guy would look down at the paper in front of him and then back up at her blankly, as if to say, No, that’s not today’s password. Then she’d follow with something like “I’m also committed to life-long learning,” and the response would be dead silence. A few days later, she’d get a no-reply e-mail expressing perfunctory pro forma regret, telling her the spot had been filled and wishing her the best of luck.)”
― Dexter Palmer, Version Control

“The accents along the border, in Lindsay and Jedburgh, are thicker and harder to penetrate than in Edinburgh, as if, so close to England, these little Scottish villages have sworn to be more Scottish than the Scots, wearing their cultural identity like a sword and shield. Up yours, English!”
― Claire North, The Sudden Appearance of Hope

“even in Hawick, with its floral competitions and empty hanging baskets, waiting for the spring; its monument to the soldier-children who drove back English invaders, its betting shops and quietly churning textile mills, its pride in being itself – even here.”
― Claire North, The Sudden Appearance of Hope

“There was no escape: The entire Elliott 503 Mark II software project had to be abandoned, and with it, over thirty man-years of programming effort, equivalent to nearly one man’s active working life, and I was responsible, both as designer and as manager, for wasting it. ...

How did we recover from the catastrophe? First, we classified our 503 customers into groups, according to the nature and size of the hardware configurations which they had bought ... We assigned to each group of customers a small team of programmers and told the team leader to visit the customers to find out what they wanted; to select the easiest request to fulfill, and to make plans (but no promises) to implement it. In no case would we consider a request for a feature that would take more than three months to implement and deliver. The project leader would then have to convince me that the customers’ request was reasonable, that the design of the new feature was appropriate, and that the plans and schedules for implementation were realistic. Above all, I did not allow anything to be done which I did not myself understand. It worked! The software requested began to be delivered on the promised dates. With an increase in our confidence and that of our customers, we were able to undertake fulfilling slightly more ambitious requests. Within a year we had recovered from the disaster. Within two years, we even had some moderately satisfied customers.”
― C.A.R. Hoare

“When your people come together as a group, they do not perform well.”
― Jack McDevitt, Firebird

“Face it: You're always just a breath away from a job in telemarketing.”
― Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

“the workspace an overwrought diorama of consultant-crafted mindfulness buzzword fuckery.”
― Adam Peter Johnson, Branches