Since failure can arise from many causes, product processes typically demand consensus by many people, each expert in a separate cause of potential failure. Such consensus stifles great design in several ways. First, each expert watchdog is paid to avoid mistakes, not to make great things happen.

— Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Design of Design

Many software researchers advocate rather than investigate. As a result, (a) some advocated concepts are worth far less than their advocates believe, and (b) there is a shortage of evaluative research to help determine what the value of such concepts really is.

— Robert L. Glass, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

Dealing with complexity is the most important challenge in software design.

— JohnOusterhout, A Philosophy of Software Design

There’s this Pollyannaish notion that the most important thing to do when working together is stay positive and get along, to not hurt anyone’s feelings. Well, that’s just wrong. Maybe debate is going to be less pleasant, but it will always be more productive. True creativity requires some trade-offs.

— Jonah Lehrer, Group Think: The Brainstorming Myth

An evolutionary architecture consists of three primary aspects: incremental change, fitness functions, and appropriate coupling.

— Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons and Patrick Kua, Building Evolutionary Architechtures