Dallin Coons

“I’m a very serious “possibilist.” That’s something I made up. It means someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason, someone who constantly resists the overdramatic worldview. As a possibilist, I see all this progress, and it fills me with conviction and hope that further progress is possible. This is not optimistic. It is having a clear and reasonable idea about how things are. It is having a worldview that is constructive and useful.”
― Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

“Professionals speak truth to power. Professionals have the courage to say no to their managers.

How do you say no to your boss? After all, it's your boss! Aren't you supposed to do what your boss says?

No. Not if you are a professional.

Slaves are not allowed to say no. Laborers may be hesitant to say no. But professionals are expected to say no. Indeed, good managers crave someone who has the guts to say no. It's the only way you can really get anything done.”
― Robert C Martin

“When in the past whole species or ecosystems were destroyed, no one realized or even cared. Alongside all the other improvements, our surveillance of suffering has improved tremendously. This improved reporting is itself a sign of human progress, but it creates the impression of the exact opposite.”
― Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

“Professional developers are so certain of their code and tests that they are maddeningly casual about making random, opportunistic changes. They'll change the name of a class, on a whim. They'll notice a long-ish method while reading through a module and repartition it as a matter of course They'll transform a switch statement into polymorphic deployment, or collapse an inheritance hierarchy into a chain-of-command. In short, they treat software the way a sculptor treats clay-they continuously shape and mold it.”
― Robert C Martin