…in 1983, the psychologist Lisanne Bainbridge wrote a seminal essay on the hidden dangers of relying too heavily on automated systems. Build a machine to improve human performance, she explained, and it will lead – ironically – to a reduction in human ability.

— Hannah Fry, Hello World

The aim of the deployment pipeline is threefold. First, it makes every part of the process of building, deploying, testing, and releasing software visible to everybody involved, aiding collaboration. Second, it improves feedback so that problems are identified, and so resolved, as early in the process as possible. Finally, it enables teams to deploy and release any version of their software to any environment at will through a fully automated process.

— Jez Humble and David Farley, Continuous Delivery

…these results indicate that intensive mental training can produce lasting and significant improvements in the efficient distribution of attentional resources among competing stimuli, even when individuals are not actively using the techniques they have learned.

— Andy Hunt, Pragmatic Thinking

…those who do better are not using any particularly advanced technology. Their better performance can be explained entirely by their more effective ways of handling people, modifying the workplace and corporate culture…

— Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister, Peopleware

As the old-time mariner’s dictum puts it: If you want to go from Europe to the New World, just head south until your butter melts, then turn right.

— David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown