Each new tool we create ends an old relationship with the world and starts a new one. And we're changed by that relationship, inevitably. It changes the way we live, changes our patterns, changes our social organization.
Ellen UllmanRead
To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accommodations with failure, or the work will become intolerable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being a programmer involves learning to deal with errors and failures constructively.
Ellen Ullman's quote emphasizes the essential relationship between programmers and the errors they encounter in their work. It suggests that rather than avoiding or resenting failure, programmers must learn to accept and manage it in order to maintain a sustainable and productive work environment. This acceptance is crucial for growth, learning, and ultimately, success in the field of programming.
Themes
ProgrammerErrorsFailureRelationshipAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
In a tech conference to highlight the importance of learning from failure.
More from Ellen Ullman
All quotes →So many people for so many years have promoted technology as the answer to everything. The economy wasn't growing: technology. Poor people: technology. Illness: technology. As if, somehow, technology in and of itself would be a solution. Yet machine values are not always human values.
Ellen UllmanRead
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