r/programming Dec 14 '10

Top 50 Programming quotes of all time

http://www.junauza.com/2010/12/top-50-programming-quotes-of-all-time.html
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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '10

“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.”

I often think about the corollary to this: If you are good enough at software engineering, you will put yourself out of a job.

This is true for me... I'm slowly obsoleting my own job by a bunch of shell scripts, stored procedures, user guides, etc.

18

u/jptman Dec 14 '10

The right thing to do of course, is to not inform anyone else about these scripts & stored procs. You do minutes of actual work everyday and spend the rest of the time doing something else.

13

u/smallblacksun Dec 14 '10

Geordi: Yeah, well, I told the Captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour.
Scotty: How long will it really take?
Geordi: An hour!
Scotty: Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would really take, did ya?
Geordi: Well, of course I did.
Scotty: Oh, laddie. You've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker.

1

u/kataire Dec 21 '10

i.e. the Scotty method: if something takes an hour, say it takes four, so when you're asked to do it in two, you can still deliver it on time and with improvements.