I have, indeed, been taking offense all my life because I enjoyed it and felt it was beautiful. It is not only pleasurable, it is also esthetically satisfying to feel offended.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov

You may have to use a dozen tools and websites to handle the various logistical aspects of software development, and soon the triumph starts to wear a little thin. Add another dozen software libraries and frameworks that you may use internally in your programs—again, each one comes bristling with its own eccentricities, bugs, and books—and weariness sets in. Each tool and preconstructed library solves a problem that you must otherwise solve yourself, but each solution is a separate body of knowledge you must maintain.

— Vikram Chandra, Geek Sublime

What do people need to be good developers?

• Basic safety—freedom from hunger, physical harm, and threats to loved ones. Fear of job loss threatens this need.
• Accomplishment—the opportunity and ability to contribute to their society.
• Belonging—the ability to identify with a group from which they receive validation and accountability and contribute to its shared goals.
• Growth—the opportunity to expand their skills and perspective.
• Intimacy—the ability to understand and be understood deeply by others.

— Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres, Extreme Programming Explained

Eloi learn everything they know from being steeped from birth in electronic media directed and controlled by book-reading Morlocks. That many ignorant people could be dangerous if they got pointed in the wrong direction, and so we’ve evolved a popular culture that is (a) almost unbelievably infectious, and (b) neuters every person who gets infected by it, by rendering them unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands.

— Neal Stephenson, In the Beginning…Was the Command Line

…the safest policy is simply not to give an off-the-cuff estimate. You never know how far it will travel, and it’s futile to try to put conditions on it…

— Steve McConnell, Rapid Development