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.
Meditation is the means through which the Soul dictates and guides the mind for all good.
It is very important to know who you are. To make decisions. To show who you are.
Spend too much time alone with your own words, and your writing grows anemic, in dire need of a transfusion.
Who can estimate the real wealth that inheres in a fine character. . . . How base and mean money and huge estates look in comparison. All other things fade before it. Its touch is like magic to win friendship, influence, power. Can you afford to chill, to discourage, to crush out of your life this sweet, sensitive plant, which would flower in your nature and give added glory to your life, for the sake of a few dollars, a little questionable fame?
There is no satisfying the senses, not even with a shower of money. "The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering." When a wise man has realised this, he takes no pleasure, as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven. Instead he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving.
But most important of all, she explained that it was all right to say 'No. I disagree.' that was a gift. I understood it was power. The power to think my own thoughts. The power to believe in myself.
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