Coding skill is just one small part of writing correct programs. The majority of the task is the subject of the three previous columns: problem definition, algorithm design, and data structure selection. If you perform those tasks well, writing correct code is usually easy.

— Jon Bentley, Programming Pearls

Imagine the benefits of a single computer language! Employers would not have to hunt for programmers who know Calypso-lang. Books, articles, and research papers could be published with code, and every programmer would understand them. The number of frameworks and libraries would vastly shrink. The number of platforms you’d have to port your systems to would shrink as well. A single language would be a remarkable boon to the software businesses, to programmers, to researchers, and to users.

— Robert C. Martin, We, Programmers

Inadequate systems tend systematically to be systemically unfixable…

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Inadequate Equilibria

…often talk is an escape from doing anything. We chatter on and on to cover our feelings and to hide from ourselves and others our own futility.

— Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought

Hyperfocus is the basis for innovative achievement.

— Andreas Hofer and Adrienn Raczi, Born Different