“All my methods are rational,” said Captain Ahab. “Only my ends are insane.”

— Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener

The renowned information theorist Claude Shannon, whose discoveries paved the way for modern technology, had a simple definition for “information”: that which surprises you. If you’re not surprised, then you already knew it at some level, so why take note of it?

— Tiago Forte, Building a Second Brain

Where conservative nostalgists discount the present in favor of a radically different past, the tech industry finds the present lacking when compared to the incredible, candy-colored future that is right around the corner.

— Adrian Daub, What Tech Calls Thinking

When an engineer with years of familiarity in a problem space begins designing a product, it’s easy to imagine a utopian end-state for the work. However, it’s important to differentiate aspirational goals of the product from minimum success criteria (or Minimum Viable Product). Projects can lose credibility and fail by promising too much

— Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, and Niall Richard Murphy, Site Reliability Engineering

Well-integrated, high-functioning software that is easy to understand usually blends in. Simple solutions do not do much to enhance one’s personal brand. They are rarely worth talking about. Therefore, when an organization provides no pathway to promotion for software engineers, they are incentivized to make technical decisions that emphasize their individual contribution over integrating well into an existing system.

— Marianne Bellotti, Kill It With Fire