Comparative analysis suggests there is a direct relation however between the level of violence employed in a bureaucratic system, and the level of absurdity and ignorance it is seen to produce.

— David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules

The problem is that carbon emissions are a classic public goods game, also known as a Tragedy of the Commons. People benefit from everyone else’s sacrifices and suffer from their own, so everyone has an incentive to be a free rider and let everyone else make the sacrifice, and everyone suffers.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

The TDD uncertainty principle: To the extent you demand certainty, your tests will be inflexible. To the extent you demand flexible tests, you will have diminished certainty.

— Robert C. Martin, Clean Craftsmanship

Installing in someone’s mind the idea that they can achieve anything they want obscures from their consciousness the numerous factors which prevent this from being true.

— Anja Publications, Philosophy Now

Careful function definition, careful specification, and the disciplined exorcism of frills of function and flights of technique all reduce the number of system bugs that have to be found.

— Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month