Software patents, in particular, are very ripe for abuse. The whole system encourages big corporations getting thousands and thousands of patents. Individuals almost never get them.
Linus TorvaldsRead
I have an ego the size of a small planet.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously exaggerates the speaker's self-importance or pride.
Linus Torvalds uses hyperbole to convey a playful acknowledgment of his own ego, suggesting that it is vast and expansive, much like a small planet. This self-deprecating humor invites listeners to consider the balance between confidence and humility, poking fun at the notion of having an inflated sense of self-importance.
Themes
EgoHumorPrideSelf-ImportanceExaggeration
In practice
Example use cases
To lightheartedly describe a colleague's overconfidence in a team meeting.
More from Linus Torvalds
All quotes βI often compare open source to science. To where science took this whole notion of developing ideas in the open and improving on other peoples' ideas and making it into what science is today and the incredible advances that we have had. And I compare that to witchcraft and alchemy, where openness was something you didn't do.
Linus TorvaldsRead
I'm sitting in my home office wearing a bathrobe. The same way I'm not going to start wearing ties, I'm also not going to buy into the fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords.
Linus TorvaldsRead
Avoiding complexity reduces bugs.
Linus TorvaldsRead
Most of the 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 TorvaldsRead
I've felt strongly that the advantage of Linux is that it doesn't have a niche or any special market, but that different individuals and companies end up pushing it in the direction they want, and as such you end up with something that is pretty balanced across the board.
Linus TorvaldsRead
Similar quotes
I think a playful critique is good for all of us, and that's basically how I see satire functioning. But I'm not interested in a kind of contemptuous satirical vision; I try always, even when I'm knowingly being satirical, to also be humane, but I mean, let's face it: there's plenty in American life to make fun of, and we all participate in it.
Jennifer EganRead
When I was ten, I wrote an essay on what I would be when I grew up and said I would be a professional soccer player and a comedian in off season.
Will FerrellRead
Don't judge your taco by its price
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.
Dorothy ParkerRead
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus, I know the scientific names of beings animalculous; In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
W. S. GilbertRead
Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Mae WestRead