Eric S. Raymond: Free markets select for winning solutions.

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

computer technology experts

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

Eric S. Raymond

data simplicity smart

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

bugs learning problem

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

Eric S. Raymond

problem attitude interesting

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

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

Eric S. Raymond

reuse programming writing

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

Eric S. Raymond

prototype polish

For the first time, individual hackers could afford to have home machines comparable in power and storage capacity to the minicomputers of ten years earlier - Unix engines capable of supporting a full development environment and talking to the Internet.

Eric S. Raymond

home talking years

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

Eric S. Raymond

program demand use

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

enlightenment use profound

Alchemists turned into chemists

Eric S. Raymond

keeping-secrets alchemist knowledge

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

independent stupid thinking

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

machines technology different

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

Eric S. Raymond

standards hell python

Berkeley hackers liked to see themselves as rebels against soulless corporate empires.

Eric S. Raymond

hackers rebel empires

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

pork special asking

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

mad fun people

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

Eric S. Raymond

gun responsibility want

A software system is transparent when you can look at it and immediately see what is going on. It is simple when what is going on is uncomplicated enough for a human brain to reason about all the potential cases without strain

Eric S. Raymond

simple brain looks

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