Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
Tag Archives: quote
The Paradox of Simplification
Your work is done when it looks so simple that the consumer thinks they could have done it, which means they won’t appreciate how hard you worked.
Subtract
Derek Sivers, on how to improve life, not by adding things but by subtracting things:
The least successful people I know run in conflicting directions, are drawn to distractions, say yes to almost everything, and are chained to emotional obstacles.
The most successful people I know have a narrow focus, protect themselves against time-wasters, say no to almost everything, and have let go of old limiting beliefs.
It’s easy to think I need something else. It’s hard to look instead at what to remove.
Customer Support
Customer support is an R&D exercise. Every support ticket is an opportunity to think through:
🎫 How can we avoid having this support ticket on the future?
👓 How could we make the product clearer?
🤷🏻♀️ How could we avoid the confusion?
🐛 Fix the bug.— Garry() (@garrytan) June 1, 2019
Treat causes, not symptoms.
Twitter Driven Development
Wait, we don’t like
.reduce()
now? I loved using reduce. Man, Twitter, I just got done refactoring all my code to hooks, binary templates, andasync
/await
and now this.Twitter-driven-development is hard. 😓
— Brian Holt (@holtbt) February 24, 2019
Creating vs. Shipping
Creating is easy. Shipping is the hard part, and countless companies never quite figure it out. Sure, they might release their software, but that’s not the same as shipping. No company is perfect, but it makes a big difference when they genuinely care.
Shipping is about consistency. It’s regularly updated help documents. It’s responsive and helpful customer support. It’s useful release notes. It’s an informative status page. It’s a regularly updated blog and social media accounts. It’s all the little things.
— Garett Dimon, in his piece Creating vs. Shipping
Fancy Words and Big Concepts
Reminds me of a few meetings/conversations I recently had 🙃
More quotes by Naval in this post: Navalism.
Attention
Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, in an interview, answering a question on how his workspace is set up:
I’m a one-computer guy—a 12″ MacBook, so I can work from anywhere. Years ago I used multiple monitors and had multiple computers. Then I jettisoned multiple computers but kept the multiple monitor setup. And a few years ago I tossed out the second monitor and have been a single computer, single screen person since then. I go full screen on nearly every app. I also hide my dock. I don’t want anything pulling my attention away. When I’m curious I’ll look. Otherwise, I’m looking at what I want, not what someone else might want me to see.
Protect your attention like you protect your friends, family, money, etc. It’s among the most valuable things you have.
Being a unitasker (1 window, maximized) myself (yet with two screens): yes!
Also: who needs notifications?
L’esprit de l’escalier
Now this sounds familiar:
“L’esprit de l’escalier” is a French term used in English for the predicament of thinking of the perfect reply too late.
According to Wikipedia:
During a dinner at the home of statesman Jacques Necker, a remark was made to Denis Diderot which left him speechless at the time, because, he explains, “a sensitive man, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again [when he reaches] the bottom of the stairs”.
To have reached the bottom of the stairs, here, means to have left the gathering/conversation.
State of the Web
Great quote – orignally by Sylvain Galineau (yet now removed) – as heard at the excellent Fronteers Conference:
The web platform has always had two solutions to every problem: the deprecated one you shouldn’t use and the one that’s not yet ready.
🙂