"The first
time you go through the subject, you do not understand it at all. The second time, you
think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time, you know
that you do not understand it, but you are so used to the subject that it does not bother
you anymore."
- Arnold Sommerfeld, about thermodynamics
"those who can, do; those who can't, teach."
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
"engineering ... is the art of doing that well with one dollar, which any bungler can do with two after a fashion."
- Arthur M. Wellingtony, The Economic Theory of the Location of Railways
“In God we trust. All others bring data.”
- Bo Lojek, History of Semiconductor Engineering
"Research is when you don't know what you're doing."
- ???
The cheapest, fastest, and most reliable components are those that aren’t there.
- C. Gordon Bell
"When you test you find something is wrong."
- Donald Trump (May 14, 2020)
I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good.
- Eric Johns (October 1988), U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings: 37
“If an expert says something can be done he is probably correct, but if he says it is impossible then consider getting another opinion.”
- Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
- Alan Kay
The management question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. […] Hence plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.
- Brooks, The Mythical Man Month (Page 116)
Brooks's Law:
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
- Brooks, The Mythical Man Month
... this was going to be one of these Onion Syndrome deals - you peel off a couple layers, and cry; then you peel off a couple more layers, and cry some more.
- Bob Pease, What's All This Ground Noise Stuff, Anyhow?
All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection, except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
Thinking is recommended. Heck, thinking is required.
- Bob Pease, Troubleshooting Analog Circuits
... a little known tenet of precision op amp circuits: Williams's Rule. Williams's Rule is simple: always invert (except when you can't).
- Jim Williams, Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science, and Personalities
"Any idiot can count to ONE ..."
- Quoted by Samuel Wilensky in Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science, and Personalities
(maybe attributed to Bob Wildar)
Anyone can build a bridge that stands up, but only an engineer can build a bridge that just barely stands up.
- ????
In real estate, it is location, location, location. In mathematics, it is notation, notation, notation.
- ????
In software, debugging is harder than writing code. If you write the code as clever as you can, then you are not smart enough to debug it.
- ????
... where there is no confusion there is no prestige.
-Linderholm, Mathematics Made Difficult
All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection, except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.
-????
... practicing what was called "the mushroom theory of management." ... defined it as follows: "Put 'em in the dark, feed 'em shit, and watch 'em grow."
- Tracy Kidder, The Soul of A New Machine
Hardware eventually fails. Software eventually works.
-Michael Hartung
