…forcing programmers to work in isolation is like trying to study the swimming behavior of frogs by cutting off their legs and putting those legs in the water to watch them swim.

— Gerald Weinberg, The Psychology of Computer Programming

Our whole civilization now depends, for its day-to-day existence, on software. If the software systems of the world were to suddenly shut down, I expect that the death toll in the weeks thereafter would dwarf that of any previous time in history.

— Robert C. Martin, We, Programmers

Focusing exclusively on what is in our power magnifies and enhances our power.

— Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way

Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

— Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

Power makes you lazy.

— David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules