Hard quotes

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Louisa_May_Alcott

Little Kingdom

“A little kingdom I possess,
 Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
 And very hard I find the task
 Of governing it well.”
Keywords: Little_quotes Kingdom_quotes Possess_quotes Thought_quotes Feeling_quotes Dwell_quotes Hard_quotes Task_quotes Govern_quotes

Isaac_Asimov

Scientific Method

“It is hard to describe the exact route to scientific achievement, but a good scientist doesn't get lost as he travels it.”
  • Source: Isaac Asimov, chapter epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, published in 1988 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York. Chapter 75, page 290. ISBN 1-555-84111-2.
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Hard_quotes Scientific_quotes Achievement_quotes Good_quotes Scientist_quotes Lost_quotes Travel_quotes

Robert_N_Britcher

Programming is Hard

“But programming is hard.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 24.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Hard_quotes

Sources of Failures

“I never ran a test that didn't find at least one failure - not only is the software impure, but so are the requirements specifications. And every time we fix the software, there is a 10 percent chance - according to my anecdotal studies - we'll inject another fault. Those are the hardest to find: the faults that result from trying to get rid of them.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 56.
Keywords: Testing_quotes Failure_quotes Software_quotes Impurity_quotes Requirements_quotes Specification_quotes Repair_quotes Fix_quotes Fault_quotes Injection_quotes Hard_quotes Debugging_quotes Run_quotes Find_quotes Time_quotes Chance_quotes Anecdotal_quotes Study_quotes Result_quotes Try_quotes Rid_quotes

Knowing Versus Doing

“We should not give up because there is no unified field theory of software engineering. The elements may not be easy to implement, but they are relatively simple, especially when compared with the study of proteins. ... The problem is not that we do not know enough. The problem is that we do not practice what we know.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 209.
Keywords: Persistence_quotes Unification_quotes Theory_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Element_quotes Hard_quotes Simplicity_quotes Protein_quotes Problem_quotes Knowledge_quotes Action_quotes Practice_quotes Doing_quotes Software_quotes Engineering_quotes Easy_quotes Implement_quotes Relative_quotes Compare_quotes Study_quotes Practice_quotes

Fred Brooks

Specification Hard

“Even perfect program verification can only establish that a program meets its specification. The hardest part of the software task is arriving at a complete and consistent specification, and much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.”
  • Source: Brooks Jr., F. P. (1995). The Mythical Man-Month - Essays on Software Engineering (Anniversary Edition) | 1975/1995 (Anniv.). Boston. MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0201835959. Chapter 16, page 195.
Keywords: Specification_quotes Requirements_quotes Verification_quotes Debugging_quotes Project_quotes Project_Management_quotes Software_quotes Software_Management_quotes Perfect_quotes Program_quotes Establish_quotes Hard_quotes Difficult_quotes Task_quotes Management_quotes Arrive_quotes Complete_quotes Consistent_quotes Essence_quotes Build_quotes Fact_quotes Debug_quotes

Hardest Part of Design

“The hardest part of design is deciding what to design.”
  • Source: Brooks Jr., F. P. (2010). The Design of Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 978-0-201-36298-5. Chapter 3, page 22.
Keywords: Design_quotes Difficulty_quotes Decision_quotes Hard_quotes Part_quotes

Rational Model

“Perhaps the most devastating critique of the Rational Model, although perhaps the hardest to prove, is that most experienced designers just don’t work that way.”
  • Source: Brooks Jr., F. P. (2010). The Design of Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 978-0-201-36298-5. Chapter 3, page 30.
Keywords: Rational_quotes Model_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Software_Lifecycle_quotes Proof_quotes Experience_quotes Design_quotes Devastate_quotes Critique_quotes Hard_quotes Designer_quotes Work_quotes Software_quotes Engineering_quotes Lifecycle_quotes

Anthony_Burgess

Art Begins With Craft

“Art begins with craft, and there is no art until a craft has been mastered. You can't create unless you're willing to subordinate the creative impulse to the construction of a form. But the learning of a craft takes time, and we all think we're entitled to short cuts. Art is rare and sacred and hard work, and there ought to be a wall of fire around it.”
  • Source: Anthony Burgess (1986). But Do Blondes Prefer Gentlemen?: Homage to Qwert Yuiop, and Other Writings, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Keywords: Art_quotes Craft_quotes Creativity_quotes Construction_quotes Learning_quotes Time_quotes Shortcut_quotes Rare_quotes Sacred_quotes Hard_quotes Difficulty_quotes Fire_quotes Wall_quotes Master_quotes Subordinate_quotes Impulse_quotes Form_quotes Work_quotes

Alistair_Cockburn

People Characteristics

"People, as active devices, have success modes and failure modes. The following are the main ones that I have named and used to date:
1. People are communicating beings, doing best face-to-face, in person, with real-time question and answer.
2. People have trouble acting consistently over time.
3. People are highly variable, varying from day to day and place to place.
4. People generally want to be good citizens, are good at looking around, taking initiative, and doing 'whatever is needed' to get the project to work.
There are other characteristics that I won’t expand here:
- People need both think time and communicating opportunities...
- People work well from examples...
- People prefer to fail conservatively than to risk succeeding differently; prefer to invent than to research, can only keep a small amount in their heads, and do make mistakes, and find it hard to change their habits.
- Individual personalities easily dominate a project.
- A person’s personality profile strongly affects their ability to perform specific assignments."
Keywords: People_quotes Success_quotes Failure_quotes Communication_quotes Proximity_quotes Real_Time_quotes Question_quotes Consistency_quotes Time_quotes Variability_quotes Citizen_quotes Good_quotes Observation_quotes Flexibility_quotes Altruism_quotes Conservative_quotes Initiative_quotes Project_quotes Risk_quotes Differences_quotes Invention_quotes Innovation_quotes Research_quotes Thinking_quotes Habit_quotes Personality_quotes Ability_quotes Limitation_quotes Consciousness_quotes Cognition_quotes Mistake_quotes Hard_quotes Domination_quotes Assignment_quotes Active_quotes Device_quotes Mode_quotes Beings_quotes Face_quotes Person_quotes Answer_quotes Trouble_quotes Day_quotes Place_quotes Look_quotes Need_quotes Work_quotes Characteristic_quotes Opportunity_quotes Example_quotes Fail_quotes Head_quotes Change_quotes Profile_quotes Affect_quotes Perform_quotes

Stephen_Covey

Wrong Wall

"It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall."
  • Source: From the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey, Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind, page 98, published 1988 by Free Press: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.
Keywords: Incredible_quotes Easy_quotes Caught_quotes Up_quotes Activity_quotes Trap_quotes Busy_quotes Life_quotes Work_quotes Hard_quotes Climb_quotes Ladder_quotes Success_quotes Discovery_quotes Lean_quotes Wrong_quotes Wall_quotes

Albert_Einstein

Search for Truth

“As for the search for truth, I know from my own painful searching, with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly significant.”
  • Source: Albert Einstein, Letter to an interested layman (13 Feb 1934). In Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, “Albert Einstein: The Human Side: New Glipses From His Archives”, published in 1981 by Princeton University Press, page 18.
Keywords: Search_quotes Truth_quotes Pain_quotes Persistence_quotes Wisdom_quotes Comprehension_quotes Blind_quotes Alley_quotes Hard_quotes Reliable_quotes Step_quotes Small_quotes Understand_quotes Significant_quotes

Henry_Ford

Thinking is Hard

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”
  • Source: As quoted in The High School Teacher, Vol. XI (1935), p. 60.
Keywords: Thinking_quotes Hard_quotes Difficulty_quotes Probability_quotes Reason_quotes Work_quotes Few_quotes

Excess Organization

“That which one has to fight hardest against in bringing together a large number of people to do work is excess organization and consequent red tape. To my mind there is no bent of mind more dangerous than that which is sometimes described as the ”genius for organization.” This usually results in the birth of a great big chart showing, after the fashion of a family tree, how authority ramifies.”
  • Source: Henry Ford. A book. Entitled My Life and Work. Written by Henry Ford in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Published 1922, Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Chapter VI.
Keywords: Fight_quotes Hard_quotes People_quotes Work_quotes Excess_quotes Organization_quotes Red_Tape_quotes Mind_quotes Danger_quotes Genius_quotes Birth_quotes Chart_quotes Authority_quotes Hierarchy_quotes Bureaucracy_quotes Family_quotes Tree_quotes

Dedre_Gentner

Planet Running

“Our ability to think relationally is one of the reasons we're running the planet. Relations are really hard for other species.”
  • Source: Dedre Gentner in an interview with author David Epstein reported in his book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”. Published 2019 by Riverhead Books. Chapter 5, page 103. ISBN 978-0735214484.
Keywords: Ability_quotes Think_quotes Relation_quotes Reason_quotes Run_quotes Planet_quotes Hard_quotes Species_quotes

Gordon_Glegg

Engineering Qualifications

“If you can do maths, engineering is waiting for you... There is one overriding qualification: you will never be a good engineer if you are frightened by hard work or responsibility.”
  • Source: Glegg, G. L. (1969). The Design of Design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-79996-9. Chapter 2, page 25.
Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Engineering_quotes Qualification_quotes Word_quotes Effort_quotes Responsibility_quotes Fear_quotes Wait_quotes Override_quotes Frighten_quotes Hard_quotes Work_quotes

Yuval_Noah_Harari

Origins of Order

“Being truthful about the origins of our social order makes it easier to make changes in it... But such truthfulness comes at a price. Acknowledging the human origins of the social order makes it harder to persuade everyone to agree on it.”
  • Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 2 page 36. ISBN 978-0593734247.
Keywords: Truth_quotes Origin_quotes Social_quotes Order_quotes Easy_quotes Change_quotes Price_quotes Acknowledge_quotes Human_quotes Hard_quotes Persuasion_quotes Everyone_quotes Agree_quotes Cooperation_quotes

Robert_Heinlein

Human Stupidity

“One of the hardest things to believe is the abysmal depth of human stupidity.”
  • Source: Written by Robert A. Heinlein in the magazine series “Gulf” published in 1949-11 and 1949-12 issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Page 59. Character: Dr. Baldwin. Online at https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AST.htm retrieved 2024-05-05.
Keywords: Human_quotes Hard_quotes Believe_quotes Abysmal_quotes Depth_quotes Stupid_quotes

Heraclitus

Conceal Ignorance

“It is better to conceal ignorance, but it is hard to do so in relaxation and over wine.”
  • Source: Heraclitus from the book “The Fragments of the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on Nature” translated by G. T. W. Patrick, published in 1889 by N. Murray of Baltimore, Maryland. Fragment CVIII. Page 109. Fragment originally written by Heraclitus circa 475 BCE.
Keywords: Better_quotes Conceal_quotes Ignorance_quotes Hard_quotes Relax_quotes Wine_quotes Hide_quotes

Hans_Hüttel

Program Synthesis

“The problem of generating correct program code from a specification is well known in computer science and in fact it is a central one. It is the problem of program synthesis... A lot is already known about the synthesis problem in its various guises and in particular we know it is hard, where ‘hard’ means computationally hard.”
  • Source: Written by Hans Hüttel in the journal article entitled “On Program Synthesis and Large Language Models”, in Communications of the ACM, volume 68, number 1, 2025-01. DOI:10.1145/3680410.
Keywords: Problem_quotes Generate_quotes Correct_quotes Program_quotes Code_quotes Specification_quotes Know_quotes Computer_quotes Science_quotes Fact_quotes Central_quotes Synthesis_quotes Lot_quotes Already_quotes Various_quotes Guise_quotes Hard_quotes Computation_quotes

Charles_Issawi

Issawi's Laws of Progress

“The course of Progress: Most things get steadily worse.
The Path of Progress: A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.
The Dialectics: Direct action produces direct reaction.
The Pace of Progress: Society is a mule, not a car… If pressed too hard, it will kick and throw off its rider.”
  • Source: Issawi’s Laws of Social Motion, enlarged ed., by Charles Issawi, illustrated by David Pascal. Published by Hawthorne Books in 1973.
Keywords: Law_quotes Course_quotes Progress_quotes Steady_quotes Path_quotes Shortcut_quotes Long_quotes Distance_quotes Point_quotes Dialectic_quotes Action_quotes Direct_quotes Reaction_quotes Pace_quotes Society_quotes Mule_quotes Car_quotes Hard_quotes Kick_quotes Throw_quotes Rider_quotes

Steve_Jobs

Recruiting

“Recruiting is hard. It's just finding the needles in the haystack. You can't know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it's ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they're challenged? I ask everybody that: 'Why are you here?' The answers themselves are not what you're looking for. It's the meta-data.”
  • Source: Steve Jobs in Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs (ed. Prabhat Prakashan) - ISBN: 9789351869191.
Keywords: Recruiting_quotes Hard_quotes Find_quotes Needle_quotes Haystack_quotes Know_quotes Hour_quotes Interview_quotes Ultimate_quotes Base_quotes Gut_quotes Feel_quotes Person_quotes Challenge_quotes Ask_quotes Why_quotes Answer_quotes Look_quotes Meta-data_quotes

Show_Them

“We have a lot of customers, and we have a lot of research into our installed base. We also watch industry trends pretty carefully. But in the end, for something this complicated, it's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why a lot of people at Apple get paid a lot of money, because they're supposed to be on top of these things.”
Keywords: Customer_quotes Research_quotes Base_quotes Watch_quotes Industry_quotes Trend_quotes Complicated_quotes Hard_quotes Design_quotes Product_quotes Focus_quotes Group_quotes People_quotes Known_quotes Want_quotes Show_quotes Paid_quotes Lot_quotes Money_quotes Supposed_quotes Top_quotes

Brian_Kernighan

Debugging Harder

“Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?”
  • Source: Book entitled: The Elements of Programming Style; Edition: 2nd. Chapter: 2. Written by Brian Kernighan and Phillip James (Bill) Plauger. Also known as Kernighan's law.
Keywords: Law_quotes Debugging_quotes Hard_quotes Programming_quotes Clever_quotes Write_quotes

Donald_Knuth

Software is Hard

“My main conclusion after spending ten years of my life working on the TEX project is that software is hard. It’s harder than anything else I’ve ever had to do.”
  • Source: Donald E. Knuth in the paper entitled All Questions Answered. Published in Notices of the AMS, volume 49, number 3 (March 2002).
Keywords: Conclusion_quotes Work_quotes Project_quotes Software_quotes Programming_quotes Hard_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Useful Software Systems

“We recognize that a practical problem of considerable difficulty and importance has arisen: The successful design, production and maintenance of useful software systems. The importance is obvious and the more so since we see only greater growth in demands and requirements in the future. The consequences of poor performance, poor design, instability and mismatching of promise and performance are not going to be limited to the computing fraternity, or even their nearest neighbors, but will affect considerable sections of our society whose ability to forgive is inversely proportional to their ignorance of the difficulties we face. The source of difficulty is distributed through the whole problem, easy to identify, and yet its cure is hard to pinpoint so that systematic improvement can be gotten.”
Keywords: Usefulness_quotes Practical_quotes Problem_quotes Difficulty_quotes Importance_quotes Arise_quotes Success_quotes Design_quotes Production_quotes Maintain_quotes Software_quotes System_quotes Obvious_quotes Great_quotes Growth_quotes Demand_quotes Requirements_quotes Consequence_quotes Poor_quotes Performance_quotes Instability_quotes Mismatch_quotes Promise_quotes Go_quotes Limitation_quotes Computing_quotes Fraternity_quotes Near_quotes Neighbor_quotes Affect_quotes Considerable_quotes Section_quotes Society_quotes Ability_quotes Forgiveness_quotes Inverse_quotes Proportion_quotes Ignorance_quotes Face_quotes Source_quotes Distributed_quotes Easy_quotes Identify_quotes Cure_quotes Hard_quotes Pinpoint_quotes Improve_quotes

Failure and Success

“Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.”
Keywords: Deal_quotes Failure_quotes Easy_quotes Work_quotes Hard_quotes Improve_quotes Success_quotes Handle_quotes Solution_quotes Wrong_quotes Problem_quotes Requirements_quotes

Theodore_Roosevelt

Hard to Fail

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
  • Source: Theodore Roosevelt, governor of New York, speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, Illinois, April 10, 1899.—The Strenuous Life (vol. 13 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed.), chapter 1, p. 320 (1926).
Keywords: Hard_quotes Failure_quotes Worse_quotes Try_quotes Success_quotes Attempt_quotes

Carl_Sagan

Extraordinary Claims

“What counts is not what sounds plausible, not what we would like to believe, not what one or two witnesses claim, but only what is supported by hard evidence rigorously and skeptically examined. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
  • Source: Carl Sagan, Cosmos: Encyclopedia Galactica, (video program), Episode 12
    • Sagan, C., Druyan, A., & Soter, S. (Writers) (1980). Encyclopedia galactica [Television series episode]. In Andorfer, G. & McCain R. (Executive Producers), Cosmos. Los Angeles, CA: PBS.
    • Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f77B2gRZhSo at about 1:00.
Keywords: Count_quotes Sound_quotes Plausible_quotes Like_quotes Preference_quotes Belief_quotes Witness_quotes Claim_quotes Support_quotes Hard_quotes Evidence_quotes Rigorous_quotes Skepticism_quotes Examination_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Requirements_quotes Bias_quotes

Adlai_Stevenson-II

Way of the Egghead

“'Via ovicipitum dura est,' or, for the benefit of the engineers among you: ‘The way of the egghead is hard’.”
  • Source: From a lecture by Adlai Ewing Stevenson II at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 17, 1954
Keywords: Benefit_quotes Engineer_quotes Way_quotes Egghead_quotes Hard_quotes

Frederick_Winslow_Taylor

Workman Soldiering

“After a workman has had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two or three times as a result of his having worked harder and increased his output, he is likely to entirely lose sight of his employer's side of the case and to become imbued with a grim determination to have no more cuts if soldiering can prevent it.”
  • Source: F.W. Taylor (1903) "Shop management; a paper read before the American society of mechanical engineers, " in: Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 24: 1337-1480. p. 1352.
Keywords: Productivity_quotes Soldiering_quotes Ignorance_quotes Employment_quotes Labor_quotes Deception_quotes Worker_quotes Optimization_quotes Exploitation_quotes Workman_quotes Price_quotes Piece_quotes Work_quotes Lower_quotes Result_quotes Hard_quotes Increase_quotes Output_quotes Likely_quotes Entire_quotes Lose_quotes Sight_quotes Employer_quotes Side_quotes Case_quotes Become_quotes Imbued_quotes Grim_quotes Determination_quotes Cut_quotes Prevent_quotes

Shannon_Vallor

Imagination

“It is hard to envision someone entirely lacking in imagination who can still develop and express their full moral, intellectual, and creative potential.”
  • Source: From the book “The AI Mirror” by Shannon Vallor. Published 2024 by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0197759066. Chapter 3, page 67.
Keywords: Hard_quotes Envision_quotes Someone_quotes Entire_quotes Lack_quotes Imagination_quotes Develop_quotes Express_quotes Full_quotes Moral_quotes Intellectual_quotes Creative_quotes Potential_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Share the Fruits

“Taylor believed it was necessary to share the fruits of such productivity increases and saw the differential piece-rate system, a central tenet of scientific management, as a method of uniting workers and managers in a bond of common interest. But incentive wages are devilishly hard to administer, and all too often, managers attracted to differential wage schemes succumbed to shortcuts that promised fast gains. Managers would frequently change piece rates as workers learned to meet the standards. This led to the complaints of overwork with which unions relentlessly dogged proponents of Taylorism. Scientific management frequently meant not only that individual effort was simplified (either because of labor-saving equipment or new organizational methods that fragmented tasks into their simplest components), but also that the pace of effort was intensified, thus raising the level of fatigue and stress.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 45. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Fruit_quotes Sharing_quotes Productivity_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Worker_quotes Management_quotes Incentive_quotes Employment_quotes Compensation_quotes Cooperation_quotes Fast_quotes Short_Sighted_quotes Change_quotes Exploitation_quotes Union_quotes Taylorism_quotes Automation_quotes Simplification_quotes Organization_quotes Fatigue_quotes Stress_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Increase_quotes Unite_quotes Bond_quotes Common_quotes Interest_quotes Wage_quotes Devilish_quotes Hard_quotes Administer_quotes Attract_quotes Differential_quotes Scheme_quotes Succum_quotes Shortcut_quotes Promise_quotes Gain_quotes Frequent_quotes Piece_quotes Rate_quotes Learn_quotes Standard_quotes Complaint_quotes Overwork_quotes Relentless_quotes Dogged_quotes Proponent_quotes Individual_quotes Effort_quotes Equipment_quotes Method_quotes Fragment_quotes Task_quotes Component_quotes Pace_quotes Intense_quotes Raise_quotes Level_quotes
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