Isn’t it true that whatever isn’t determined by our genes must be determined by our environment? What else is there? There’s Nature and there’s Nurture. Is there also some X, some further contributor to what we are? There’s Chance. Luck. This extra ingredient is important but doesn’t have to come from the quantum bowels of our atoms or from some distant star. It is all around us in the causeless coin-flipping of our noisy world, automatically filling in the gaps of specification left unfixed by our genes, and unfixed by salient causes in our environment.

— Daniel C. Dennett, Freedom Evolves

…the lack of software skill never was the problem. Lack of managerial skill was always the problem; lack of software skill was merely a convenient excuse for those managers who lacked esteem.

— Gerald Weinberg, The Psychology of Computer Programming

…there is a conspiracy that you can find online: It is the one to keep you online, looking for conspiracies.

— Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

Gödel’s work was seen as a reaffirmation of Platonism and, more recently a proof of the impossibility of Artificial Intelligence.

— Philip Stokes, Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers

System administrators can become cranky and unresponsive because they’re not directly exposed to competitive pressure. A salesman has to deal with customers, and a developer has to deal with competitors’ software, but a system administrator, like an old bachelor, has few external forces to keep him in line.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters