The Lone Sysadmin » Quotes

Getting Things Done in Committee

Bob Plankers — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:24:06 +0000

“To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.”

- Robert Copeland

Defeating Ignorant Men

Bob Plankers — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:37:23 +0000

“It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.”

- William G. McAdoo

Get Even

Bob Plankers — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:59:20 +0000

“Don’t get mad. Get even.”

- David Plankers (1946 - 2001)*

* also, I realize that he’s probably not the first to say it, it’s just where I heard it.

Shortcuts Aren’t

Bob Plankers — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:04:40 +0000

“It’s hard to overemphasize how out-of-balance the economics are here. You saved maybe thirty person-seconds by skipping the review and checkpatch steps. But the cost (if this bug had gone into mainline) would be many many thousands times higher than this.” - Andrew Morton, admonishing someone on the LKML for not checking their work.

How many times a week do you work around shortcuts, where the original person saved a few minutes but cost weeks of time later?

The Future Is Called ‘Perhaps’

Bob Plankers — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:57:36 +0000

“The future is called ‘perhaps,’ which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.”

- Tennessee Williams

Grey’s Law

Bob Plankers — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:17:11 +0000

Daring Fireball featured a great quote last Sunday, Grey’s Law:

“Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”

Interestingly enough, nobody knows who “Grey” was.

Rosenberg’s Law

Bob Plankers — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:09:00 +0000

“Software is easy to make, except when you want it to do something new.”

Weinberg’s Second Law

Bob Plankers — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:05:08 +0000

“If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.”

Ninety-Ninety Rule

Bob Plankers — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:25:24 +0000

“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”

- Tom Cargill, Bell Labs

Mistakes

Bob Plankers — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:49:50 +0000

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
— Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), The Note Book

Think Different, All Together

Bob Plankers — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:17:00 +0000

“The surest way to corrupt a young man is to teach him to esteem more highly those who think alike than those who think differently.”

– Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Creating Change

Bob Plankers — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:19:18 +0000

“The most effective way to cope with change is to help create it.”

– L.W. Lynett

Molehills, Mountains

Bob Plankers — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:12:10 +0000

“The mere apprehension of a coming evil has put many into a situation of utmost danger.”

– Lucan

Passive-Aggressive

Bob Plankers — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:14:34 +0000

“A passive-aggressive person is like a large Great Dane that’s got you pinned to the wall with his front paws and is licking your face, while he pees on your leg.”

– John Bradshaw

Blurring Everything Not Made More Clear

Bob Plankers — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:01:24 +0000

“Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything they do not make more clear.”

– Joseph Joubert