The technology, the surrounding organization, and the traditions of the craft conspire to define certain items of paperwork that a project must prepare. To the new manager, fresh from operating as a craftsman himself, these seem an unmitigated nuisance, an unnecessary distraction, and a white tide that threatens to engulf him. And indeed, most of them are exactly that.

— Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month

If software developers should always be thinking about design issues, and reducing complexity is the most important element of software design, then software developers should always be thinking about complexity.

— John Ousterhout, A Philosophy of Software Design

We live in countries where you need a license to cut hair, but you don’t need anything to write code for safety critical software or other mission critical software.

— Adam Barr, The Problem with Software

multiply 111,111,111 by itself, you get the rather pleasing 12,345,678,987,654,321

— Matt Parker, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

The lesson here is that the narrower you can make your product while still maintaining a large enough market, the more profit you will generate. It’s that simple – if you can find a small group of people and make them amazingly happy, you will make money.

— Rob Walling and Mike Taber, Start Small, Stay Small