Programmers think that design and performance are correlated, such that better design runs faster. In reality, they are frequently inversely correlated: simpler, more elegant designs run slower, and you improve performance by complicating your design with special cases.

— Adam Barr, TheProblem with Software

Models need to be judged by what they eliminate as much as by what they include—like stone carving, the art is in removing what you do not need.

— John H. Miller and Scott E. Page, Complex Adaptive Systems

It is foolish to answer a question that you do not understand. It is sad to work for an end that you do not desire.

— G. Polya and John H. Conway, How to Solve It

Today, programmer aptitude testing is a dead issue (or so I hope). If this chapter had any part in killing this ridiculous practice, then I take pride in having done my job. Yes, intelligence is a factor in programming success—people with an IQ less than 50 are probably not going to create operating systems (although they might design new languages—the Devil made me say that).

— Gerald Weinberg, The Psychology of Computer Programming

LTP is a process that increases the efficiency of synaptic transmission, which is now widely believed to be the neural basis of most, if not all, forms of learning and memory.

— Moheb Costandi, Neuroplaticity