7 essential quotes about programming

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, and a quote is like a picture, made with words, from which a strong message emerges.

I've selected here 7 quotes about the world of development that mix wisdom and experience!

Quote #1

"Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter." - Eric S. Raymond

Be careful not to misinterpret this quote, of course theoretical teaching is essential to becoming a developer, but it's not enough to become an expert, you need experience, trying, testing, practicing and getting your hands into the code for several years!

Quote #2

"I don't care if it works on your machine! We are not shipping your machine!" - Unknown

What more can be added? Clear, sharp and precise! But it's true that if we could ship projects with the dev machine, we'd save a lot of time!

Quote #3

"Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen." - Edward V. Berard

For me, this quote deserves the gold medal, a perfect balance between wisdom and wordplay. And as a reminder, that absolutely never happens!

Quote #4

"Code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you live." - Jeff Atwood

And the worst part is that sometimes it can actually be the case, especially if you're maintaining your own code...

Quote #5

"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." - Martin Fowler

Alright, let's stop with the nested ternaries now, okay?

Quote #6

"Adding people to a late project makes it later" - Frederick Brooks

You could also say that 1 dev + 1 dev doesn't divide the development time by 2, far from it!

Quote #7

"Any code of your own that you haven't looked at for six or more months might as well have been written by someone else" - Alan Eagleson

Is there really anything to add?

Bonus quote

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Has it ever happened to you that you fixed a bug as if by magic? It has for me.

More quotes

If you haven't had enough, I invite you to browse the site below which will offer you hundreds of quotes about computing (in English)!

https://www.defprogramming.com/random/