Eric S. Raymond Quotes

Quotes about:

• Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Technology, Experts, Computer

  59 Copy quote

• Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the other way around.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Smart, Data, Simplicity

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.37, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

  45 Copy quote

• You cannot motivate the best people with money. Money is just a way to keep score. The best people in any field are motivated by passion.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Passion, People, Way

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• If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Attitude, Interesting, Problem

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.26, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse)

  Eric S. Raymond

  Writing, Reuse, Programming

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.24, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

  56 Copy quote

• Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow (e.g., given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix obvious to someone).

  Eric S. Raymond

  Learning, Bugs, Problem

  27 Copy quote

• Alchemists turned into chemists
  when they stopped keeping secrets.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Knowledge, Keeping Secrets, Alchemist

  7 Copy quote

• Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it

  Eric S. Raymond

  Polish, Prototype

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• Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Problem, Realizing, Programming

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.40, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting to you.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Interesting, Problem, Programming

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.49, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Tools, Use, Way

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.44, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• Grovelling is not a substitute for doing your homework.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Homework, Substitutes

  "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way". huntersnk.com. September 30, 2016.

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• In the U.S., blacks are 12% of the population but commit 50% of violent crimes; can anyone honestly think this is unconnected to the fact that they average 15 points of IQ lower than the general population? That stupid people are more violent is a fact independent of skin color.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Stupid, Independent, Thinking

  "What good is IQ?" by Eric S. Raymond, esr.ibiblio.org. November 17, 2003.

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• Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Profound, Enlightenment, Use

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, Oreilly & Associates Incorporated

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• Lisp was far more powerful and flexible than any other language of its day; in fact, it is still a better design than most languages of today, twenty-five years later. Lisp freed ITS's hackers to think in unusual and creative ways. It was a major factor in their successes, and remains one of hackerdom's favorite languages.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Powerful, Thinking, Years

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• The easiest programs to use are those which demand the least new learning from the user

  Eric S. Raymond

  Use, Demand, Program

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• The only way to write complex software that won't fall on its face is to hold its global complexity down - to build it out of simple pieces connected by well-defined interfaces, so that most problems are local and you can have some hope of fixing or optimizing a part without breaking the whole

  Eric S. Raymond

  Fall, Writing, Simple

  7 Copy quote

• With enough eyes, all bugs are shallow.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Eye, Bugs, Enough

  7 Copy quote

• Why the hell hasn't wxPython become the standard GUI for Python yet?

  Eric S. Raymond

  Python, Hell, Standards

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• Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Debugging, Improvement, Programming

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.27, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

  8 Copy quote

• When I hear the words "social responsibility," I want to reach for my gun.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Responsibility, Gun, Want

  "Geeks Win: A survey of the oddballs who write the codes that make the 21st-century world go round". The New York Times Book Review, November 4, 2001.

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• Every good work of software starts by scratching a developers personal itch.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Good Work, Programming, Very Good

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.23, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• We hackers are a playful bunch; we'll hack anything, including language, if it looks like fun (thus our tropism for puns). Deep down, we like confusing people who are stuffier and less mentally agile than we are, especially when they're bosses. There's a little bit of the mad scientist in all hackers, ready to discombobulate the world and flip authority the finger - especially if we can do it with snazzy special effects.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Fun, People, Mad

  "Guest Editorial: World Domination". www.linuxjournal.com. January 1, 2000.

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• Thompson and Ritchie were among the first to realize that hardware and compiler technology had become good enough that an entire operating system could be written in C, and by 1978 the whole environment had been successfully ported to several machines of different types.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Technology, Different, Machines

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.8, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• And for any agents or proxy of the regime interested in asking me questions face to face, I've got some bullets slathered in pork fat to make you feel extra special welcome.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Special, Pork, Asking

  "Neda Agha Soltan’s Death Inspires New Site". blogs.wsj.com. June 22, 2009.

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