An aspect of programming that you seem to keep running up against is that while we are unbound by physical constraints we get tied down by accidents of history.

— Peter Seibel, Coders at Work

If we refrain from questioning the status quo, it is – aside from the weather and the size of our cities – primarily because we associate what is popular with what is right.

— Alain De Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

The most common approach to implementing change seems to be to try to standardize processes across an organization. “Process mapping” and “business transformation” are big business for management consultancies. The problem is that all organizations, certainly those involved in creative work, are dependent on human creativity. If we could “standardize” the process into a series of steps, we could automate it and eliminate the costly, error-prone people.

— David Farley, Modern Software Engineering

Avoid taking advice from someone who gives advice for a living, unless there is a penalty for their advice.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

If underground militant cells were setting off hundreds of bombs and robbing banks around the country these days, of course, America would be crazed, consumed, talking of nothing else, and probably under martial law. The bombings back then seldom made the national news because a reasonable and rational Establishment was still in charge of the media discourse, determined to help Americans remain reasonable and rational.

— Kurt Andersen, Fantasyland