Don’t you think it a good principle that one shouldn’t respect all human opinions, but only some and not others … that one should respect the good ones, but not the bad ones?… And good ones are those of people with understanding, whereas bad ones are those of people without it … So my good friend, we shouldn’t care all that much about what the populace will say of us, but about what the expert on matters of justice and injustice will say.

— Alain De Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

While Agile may make easy problems a bit easier, it doesn’t help with the hard problems. It’s appealing to programmers, but to make software engineering more of an engineering discipline, something else is needed.

— Adam Barr, The Problem with Software

Designing hardware is more expensive than designing software. It’s unlikely that a hardware designer would construct a system that used six different incompatible methods to do the same thing before breakfast. But because there isn’t the same up-front cost in software, software designers are often less careful.

— Jonathan E. Steinhart, The Secret Life of Programs

We may attack your beliefs. But only those who believe blindly, greedily or half-heartedly will be bothered by our brand of mockery. To question their beliefs threatens them; it makes a secret part of them ashamed, and they get riled up and start smiting.

— Subgenius Foundation, Book of the Subgenius

You want your software development to be more like farming. Farmers are methodical in knowing the lay of the land, studying its current chemical makeup, planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting their crops. Software that is reliable, extensible, and maintainable is developed just as methodically.

— Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty, Managing the Unmanageable