Archives for quotes
Trust, but Verify
Greg Hughes, one of the rock stars I had the pleasure of working with on a gig has a nice phrase that he likes to whip out from time to time: trust, but verify. Greg didn’t coin the term. Wikipedia says Ronald Regan used it and others before him. The term indicates you should trust what [...]
I Work with a Bunch of Smartasses Part VI
Pop Artist A: “I think it might be more interesting if we had several people talking in the video instead of just one.” Pop Artist B: “Yeah, maybe have them talking on the roof?” Pop Artist C: “Drinking beer!” Pop Artist D: “In fact, forget the video!”
Duplicate Work is a Bug
“You’ll sometimes hear people joke that good programmers are ‘lazy’, and what this means is simply that good programmers tend to see duplicated work as a bug, and try to fix it.” – James Bennett, discussing CSS frameworks
I Was A Baker
“I was a baker. You can’t just turn up the oven and expect to take the bread out sooner.” – Eric Danielson, NorthTemple.com QA lead, commenting on the futility of trying to rush some kinds of development.
Efficiency Magnifier
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates
WebVisions 2007
It’s hard to beat a relatively cheap, local conference. Last year, I attended with the design team from Pop Art and was suprised at the A-List names they had speaking. This year, I went back, but it was a lot more hit-or-miss. Only a couple names a recognized on the roster, and none as big [...]
The Captain Kirk Management Style
In an episode of “Star Trek” (maybe you remember it), the senior offices of the Enterprise were contaminated by low-level radiation from a comet, which caused them to age rapidly and prematurely. Fourty-five minutes into the program, Kirk, Spock, Bones and Scotty had aged to the point that they could no longer carry out their [...]
