…more than most industries, tech companies seem to run on tropes and rituals that remind you of a tent revival: the mantra-like phrases, the messianic gurus, the cult of genius that barely manages to cover up its religious dimensions.

— Adrian Daub, What Tech Calls Thinking

…one finds religious people defending their beliefs by saying, “Well, you can’t justify your belief in science!” In other words, “How dare you criticize me for having unjustified beliefs, you hypocrite! You’re doing it too!”

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, How to Actually Change Your Mind

Studying the work and intellectual habits of a “genius” to learn from him is like studying the garb of a chef to emulate his cooking.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes

…when the culture is unhealthy, it’s difficult or impossible to hire the one person who matters most, the one who doesn’t think like all the rest.

— Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Peopleware

If you have a good suite of tests and you are skilled at the discipline of refactoring, then the cost of adding a new feature and updating the design to support that new feature will almost certainly be smaller than the cost of implementing and maintaining all the hooks you might need one day.

— Robert C. Martin, Clean Craftsmanship