I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.
Interpretation
Great programmers are defined by their strong habits rather than just their skills.
This quote emphasizes that the foundation of exceptional programming is not solely based on innate talent or advanced knowledge, but rather on the discipline of cultivating good habits. Kent Beck suggests that consistent practices and routines enable programmers to achieve greater results than relying on skill alone.
In practice
In a coding bootcamp, to motivate students to develop good coding habits.
Code wants to be simple... I had to give up the idea that I had the perfect vision of the system to which the system had to conform. Instead, I had to accept that I was only the vehicle for the system expressing its own desire for simplicity. My vision could shape initial direction, and my attention to the desires of the code could affect how quickly and how well the system found its desired shape, but the system is riding me much more than I am riding the system.
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
Always forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
Invincibility depends on one's self; the enemy's vulnerability on him.
Beware: Ignorance Protects itself. Ignorance Promotes suspicion. Suspicion Engenders fear. Fear quails, Irrational and blind, Or fear looms, Defiant and closed. Blind, closed, Suspicious, afraid, Ignorance Protects itself, And protected, Ignorance grows.
We are all responsible to Jesus first, and then, under him, to various other persons and offices. Discerning the path of love and obedience when two or more of these submissive relationships collide is a call to humble, Bible-saturated, spiritual wisdom.
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