Legacy modernization projects go better when the individuals contributing to them feel comfortable being autonomous and when they can adapt to challenges and surprises as they present themselves because they understand what the priorities are. The more decisions need to go up to a senior group—be that VPs, enterprise architects, or a CEO—the more delays and bottlenecks appear.

— Marianne Bellotti, Kill It With Fire

…you would do well to be less vocally skeptical while still letting your team know you’re aware of the intricacies and obstacles involved in your work.

— Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, and Hyrum Wright, Software Engineering at Google

If you are not contributing code or being woken up in the middle of the night to answer a page, have the good sense to remember that no matter how important your job is, you are not the implementor. You do not operate the system, but you can find the operators and make sure they have the air cover they need to be successful. Empower the operators.

— Marianne Bellotti, Kill It With Fire

In politics, I claim that progressives, conservatives, and libertarians are like tribes speaking different languages. The language that resonates with one tribe does not connect with the others. As a result, political discussions do not lead to agreement. Instead, most political commentary serves to increase polarization.

— Arnold Kling, The Three Languages of Politics

Philosophy always comes on the scene too late to give instruction as to what the world ought to be. As the thought of the world, it appears only when actuality is already there, cut and dried, after its process of formation has been completed… When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then a shape of life has grown old. It cannot be rejuvenated by philosophy’s grey on grey; it can only be understood. It is only with the fall of dusk that the owl of Minerva spreads its wings.

— Georg W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right