It’s easy to assume that the person who created today’s broken process was stupid or didn’t have accurate foresight. But in truth, they probably made the best decision they could at the time. (You might have made the same decision then, too!) If you’re not careful, your innovative solution today can become tomorrow’s bureaucratic nightmare.

— Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai, Hack Your Bureaucracy

work unfinished is as good as work unstarted

— Roman Gelperin, On Rotting Prison Straw

The problem is not in producing a salable object. For no matter how hideous or impractical a piece might be, someone somewhere will buy it. Sales are no guide to quality.

— Richard Raffan, Turning Wood With Richard Raffan

A good architect, for example, does not begin by creating a design that he then imposes on the users, but by studying the intended users and figuring out what they need.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters

There’s a certain irony in the fact that so many systems that correctly implement valuable behaviors end up with a structure that is so poor that it negates that value and makes the system worthless.

— Robert C. Martin, Clean Craftsmanship