What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will. -- Paul Graham

Within a computer natural language is unnatural. -- Alan J. Perlis (Epigrams in programming)

It's no trick for talented people to be interesting, but it's a gift to be interested. We want an organization filled with interested people. -- Randy S. Nelson (dean of Pixar University)

You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program. -- Alan J. Perlis (Epigrams in programming)

Abstraction is a form of data compression: absolutely necessary, because human short-term memory is so small, but the critically important aspect of abstraction is the algorithm that gets you from the name back to the "uncompressed" details. -- Bruce Wilder (blog post comment)

Ce n'est que par les relations qu'on entretient entre nos différentes connaissances qu'elles nous restent accessibles. -- Shnuup, sur l'hypertexte (SELFHTML -> Introduction -> Definitions sur l'hypertexte)

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. ~Audre Lorde

It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings. –Ann Landers

If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough. –Oprah Winfrey

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle