Eric/Aphorisms
| Eric's Aphorisms |
Contents
- 1 Eric's Aphorisms
- 1.1 General Engineering
- 1.1.1 Engineering Imagination
- 1.1.2 Engineering Design
- 1.1.3 Walk with your Problem
- 1.1.4 Dimensional Analysis
- 1.1.5 Careful Engineers
- 1.1.6 Positive Paranoia
- 1.1.7 Autotelic Engineer
- 1.1.8 Ignorance
- 1.1.9 Question Assumptions
- 1.1.10 Catch the Wave
- 1.1.11 Epistemology
- 1.1.12 Evidence
- 1.1.13 No Evidence
- 1.1.14 Time Flows
- 1.1.15 Quality Flows
- 1.1.16 Flow Produces
- 1.1.17 Truth Frame
- 1.1.18 Generalist Specialist
- 1.1.19 The Good Generalist
- 1.1.20 The Good Specialist
- 1.1.21 Quality
- 1.1.22 Stability
- 1.1.23 Equilibrium
- 1.1.24 The Orchestra
- 1.1.25 Facts
- 1.1.26 Creative Lines
- 1.2 Software Engineering
- 1.2.1 First Try Programming
- 1.2.2 Unit Testing
- 1.2.3 Coder Responsibility
- 1.2.4 No Holds Barred
- 1.2.5 Defense
- 1.2.6 Case Otherwise
- 1.2.7 Dangling Else
- 1.2.8 Unchecked Status Code
- 1.2.9 Code Reading
- 1.2.10 Explaining Bugs
- 1.2.11 Slack Time
- 1.2.12 Scrum
- 1.2.13 Coding Easy Development Hard
- 1.2.14 Pair Programming
- 1.2.15 Improbable Bugs
- 1.2.16 Time Twice
- 1.2.17 Time Missing
- 1.2.18 Grow Software
- 1.2.19 Sorting
- 1.2.20 Easy Entry
- 1.2.21 Syntax Education
- 1.2.22 Chocolate Coding
- 1.3 Data Engineering
- 1.4 Requirements Engineering
- 1.5 Artificial Intelligence
- 1.6 Project Management
- 1.7 Mathematics
- 1.8 Science
- 1.9 Philosophy
- 1.9.1 Truth Absurd
- 1.9.2 Objectively Subjective
- 1.9.3 Ethics Cultural
- 1.9.4 Ethics Constrained
- 1.9.5 Materialism Abstract
- 1.9.6 Information at the Root
- 1.9.7 Information Physical
- 1.9.8 Idea Existence
- 1.9.9 Paradoxical Explanation
- 1.9.10 Chasing Truth
- 1.9.11 Ranking Theories
- 1.9.12 Objectivism
- 1.9.13 Questions
- 1.9.14 Knowing
- 1.9.15 Absolute Certainty
- 1.1 General Engineering
Eric's Aphorisms
- An aphorism, for the purposes of this document, is a maxim or principle concisely expressed.
- The following aphorisms come independently from the mind of Eric Alan Christiansen. Any duplication of pre-existing aphorisms from other sources is unintentional and will be corrected if discovered or reported. Obviously, many thoughts and ideas start with others. The author of the aphorisms below has attempted to add some element of original thought, style, or expression to each entry. At times, additional credit or discussion is contained elsewhere.
- Eric often used these self-originated aphorisms in industry and academia with co-workers, managers, students, conference attendees, friends and acquaintances. Hopefully they will at least stimulate some thought.
- These aphorisms rely on experienced gained from:
- More than 40 years of direct professional engineering.
- Countless mentors and advisors.
- Academic training from formal degrees and informal extracurricular programs.
- Hundreds of books and thousands of online videos.
- Online web resources.
- Thousands of hours of deep thought and pondering.
- More about Eric available at:
- See also Eric's Doggerels.
Engineering Imagination
“If you can't imagine, don't engineer.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Engineering Design
“If you have no sense of design, you have no sense of engineering.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Walk with your Problem
“Some problems will never be solved until you go on a walk with them.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Dimensional Analysis
“Dimensional Analysis is the cornerstone of safety engineering.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Careful Engineers
“All engineers should be careful engineers.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Positive Paranoia
“A wise engineer embraces ‘Positive Paranoia’ and ‘Skeptical Positive Thinking’ on every project.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Autotelic Engineer
“Excellence and motivation flow freely from an autotelic engineer.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Ignorance
“Ignorance is a temporary truce with a future frustration.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Question Assumptions
“Question your assumptions, especially the unquestionable ones.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Catch the Wave
“Technology strategy is like surfing.”
🏄 “Build up your quiver.”
🏄 “Study the water.”
🏄 “Watch the masters.”
🏄 “Listen to the old-timers.”
🏄 “Paddle hard to the right spot.”
🏄 “Wait for a gnarly wave.”
🏄 “Plan your take-off.”
🏄 “Watch out for kooks.”
🏄 “Pop-up at the right time in the right place.”
🏄 “Avoid bogging.”
🏄 “Avoid pearling.”
🏄 “Bail early if the wave is a mushburger.”
🏄 “Rip and shred a good wave.”
🏄 “Kick out with style when it's time to catch another.”
🏄 “If you wipeout, avoid the rocks at the bottom.”
Do you see the analogies?
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Epistemology
“Understand epistemology, even if you can't spell it.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Evidence
“Understand inductive, deductive, and abductive evidence, including the verification and falsification subcategories of each.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
No Evidence
“Theories that have no evidence are hypotheses not theories.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Time Flows
“Time is relative to flow state.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Quality Flows
“Quality flows from flow.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Flow Produces
“Flow produces productivity.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Truth Frame
“Truth requires a frame of reference.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Generalist Specialist
“Generalization is just another specialization.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
The Good Generalist
“A good generalist has at least one specialty.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
The Good Specialist
“A good specialist learns new specialties, including the specialty of generalization.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Quality
“Quality is achieving current and future desired characteristics of all stakeholders. Its definition is situationally dependent.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Stability
“Stability isn't stable.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Equilibrium
“Equilibrium is a temporary balance.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
The Orchestra
“If you want to be a great musical soloist, you must listen to the whole orchestra. If you want to be a great technical specialist, take note of things in the world at large.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Facts
“Beware! Some ‘facts’ are really just mistakes.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Creative Lines
“Color outside the lines, but drive inside them.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
First Try Programming
“If your program compiles cleanly and runs with no reported errors on your first try, there is clearly something wrong with your program.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Unit Testing
“If you don't personally unit test your code, you're not professional, you're not responsible, and you're not even ethical.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Coder Responsibility
“You are responsible for the design, function, reliability, and morality of your code. Others can help, but you, the code creator, can never escape this responsibility no matter what your boss says.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
No Holds Barred
“Programming is a no holds barred battle against fear, uncertainty, and doubt.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Defense
“A coder neglects defense at the peril of the program's purpose.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Case Otherwise
“A CASE structure without an OTHERWISE clause is a code bomb waiting to explode.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Dangling Else
“Never dangle an ‘else’, or else!”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Unchecked Status Code
“An unchecked status code is a sign of an uncontrolled program.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Code Reading
“Sometimes the only way to find a programming bug is to read the code.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Explaining Bugs
“If you can't find your bug, explain it to someone else; often you will see the solution before they even respond.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Slack Time
“Give all your developers 20% ‘slack time’ to do whatever they deem worthwhile as long as they tell you about it. Otherwise, they will take 50% without telling you.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Scrum
“Scrum is a perversion of a marvelously agile manifesto.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Coding Easy Development Hard
“Coding is easy; development is hard.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Pair Programming
“Strict, rigid pair programming is rarely optimal; programmers need buddies, not shadows.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Improbable Bugs
“Improbable bugs are probable.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Time Twice
“The same time twice in the same day is a bad idea.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Time Missing
“A time in one day which is missing the next day is a bad idea.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Grow Software
“The best software is grown not built.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Sorting
“It is almost always best to use a sort built into a language or that is part of a common library. If you must code your own sort, you probably want to use Merge Sort.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Easy Entry
“Software development is a profession that is easy to enter yet tough to master.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Syntax Education
“To educate a programmer in syntax, but not epistemology, is to educate a menace to software engineering.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Chocolate Coding
“Coding is like a box of chocolates; something always melts in the middle.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Old Data Valuable
“Never throw old data away. The future will demand more information than you expect.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Not Just Data
“Data is never ‘just data’.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Opportunity Fuel
“Data is ‘opportunity fuel’.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Data Lineage
“Data lineage matters.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
UTC Timestamps
“Avoid lost or repeated time traps by avoiding Daylight Savings Time; Use UTC timestamps instead.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Data Information Knowledge Wisdom
“Data + Organization = Information
Information + Application = Knowledge
Knowledge + Understanding = Wisdom.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Users Lie
“Users lie, they just don't know it yet, and neither do you.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Solution Paradox
“The solution changes the problem.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2010) ⇒⇑
Specification Verification
“Verification only verifies specifications, not the complete and true underlying requirements.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2010) ⇒⇑
AI Mistakes
“AI trains on human triumphs and human mistakes, sometimes attaching dogmatic authority to human blunders.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
AI Menace
“AI will likely become both a positive menace to society and a negative menace. What will humans become?”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
AI Assistant
“Use AI as an assistant, not as a master nor as a slave.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
People Fungibility
“People fungibility is a pernicious falsehood.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Project Blame
“Project problems are generally blamed on technical leads, not project managers, users, testers, nor executives. Therefore, technical leads deserve final say on most important project decisions.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Project Managers
“The best ‘project managers’ track and support rather than control and dictate.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Fixing Problems
“Fixing old problems creates new problems, but with a little skill and luck you can grow a bigger lead.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Slack Time Includes
“Don't slack slack time. Slack time includes learning, mentoring, communicating, developing skills, improving processes, proactive planning, leadership development, sound decision making, avoiding mistakes, identifying opportunities, exercising initiative, job satisfaction, and much more. It is crucial for organizational success.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Goofing Off Time
“There is a difference between slack time and goofing off time, but sometimes it is hard to tell.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Hard Line Soft Line
“Project managers should take a hard line with upper management and a soft line with developers. Not the other way around.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Teach and Learn
“Project managers should educate upper management and learn from developers. If this isn't the case, there is likely a respect problem.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Developer Cooperation
“Developers should cooperate with and show respect towards project managers. They are there to make your job easier and more successful. Nevertheless, don't be easily manipulated.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Hire Smarter
“Don't be afraid to hire somebody smarter than yourself.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Optimal Constraints
“Unconstrained optimization is uncontrolled optimization.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Incomplete Foundations
“It is easy to forget that mighty mathematics will always have an incomplete foundation.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Unreasonably Reasonable
“We neither understand nor deserve the miracle of mathematics.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Fields
“Fields are probably the most important, yet most mysterious and misunderstood, thing in modern Physics.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Curiosity
“Curiosity collapsed the cat.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Truth Absurd
“Truth is absurd. Get over it.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Objectively Subjective
“Truth is objectively subjective, I think.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Ethics Cultural
“Kant came close, but ethics are still culturally variable.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Ethics Constrained
“Ethics may be subjective and variable, but not unconstrained.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Materialism Abstract
“Materialism is an abstraction.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Information at the Root
“Information is at the root of our reality, probably.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Information Physical
“Information is physical; it cannot exist without a medium.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Idea Existence
“Ideas exist only when perceived and understood.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (c. 2000-2025) ⇒⇑
Paradoxical Explanation
“A paradox explained is no longer a paradox.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Chasing Truth
“Chasing truth versus falsity doesn't work. You can never know for sure. Sorting out fact versus fiction is at best a biased approximation. You are always in some kind of bubble. Hypotheses to probability ranked theories are the best we can do.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Ranking Theories
“Explanatory ideas without evidence are hypotheses. Hypotheses with evidence become theories. Weak, low probability, evidence leads to weak theories. Strong, high probability evidence leads to strong theories.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Objectivism
“Objectivism is a myth. Everything is subjective.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Questions
“Questions breed questions.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Knowing
“I know I don't know.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
Absolute Certainty
“Being absolutely certain guaranties no certainty.”
— Eric Alan Christiansen (2025) ⇒⇑
