I've always written. I'm from an older generation of programmers [who] did not come out of engineering. [A]ll sorts of people were drawn in from the ….

Software engineering is not about right and wrong but only better and worse.

The corollary of constant change is ignorance. This is not often talked about: we computer experts barely know what we're doing. We're good at fussin….

To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accomodations with f….

The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here ….

The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer..

We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.

But you can't stop knowing something, can you?.