You were successful because you happened to be in an environment where your biases and predispositions and talents and abilities all happened to align neatly with those things that would produce success in that environment.

— Eric Barker, Barking Up the Wrong Tree

…all systems of thought, once seen as metaphorical, inevitably led to contradictions or paradoxes…

— Christopher Butler, Postmodernism

Newton’s genius was, on the contrary, his ability to simplify, idealize, and streamline the world so that it became, in some measure, tractable to the brains of perfectly ordinary men.

— Gerald Weinberg, An Introduction to General Systems Thinking

The main factor impeding reliable software is our own mental ability to comprehend the essence of complex problems. Coping with complexity is intrinsic to software design and construction and will never go away.

— Peter J. Denning and Matti Tedre,Computational Thinking

The research results simply say that the effects of individual ability, individual motivation, team ability, and team motivation dwarf other productivity factors. They do not say specifically that team T-shirts, free soda pop, windowed offices, productivity bonuses, or Friday afternoon beer busts improve motivation, but the implication is clear: any organization that wants to improve its productivity should be actively trying all these things.

— Steve McConnell, Rapid Development