It has occurred to me that if people really knew how software got written, I'm not sure they'd give their money to a bank or get on an airplane ever again. Ellen Ullman More Quotes by Ellen Ullman More Quotes From Ellen Ullman We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins Ellen Ullman ruins cities way To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accomodations with failure, or the work will become intolerable. Ellen Ullman programmers errors The corollary of constant change is ignorance. This is not often talked about: we computer experts barely know what we're doing. We're good at fussing and figuring out. We function well in a sea of unknowns. Our experience has only prepared us to deal with confusion. A programmer who denies this is probably lying, or else is densely unaware of himself. Ellen Ullman ignorance sea lying The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer. Ellen Ullman machines yellow needs Software engineering is not about right and wrong but only better and worse Ellen Ullman software-engineering engineering software But you can't stop knowing something, can you? Ellen Ullman knowing-something knowing I've always written. I'm from an older generation of programmers [who] did not come out of engineering. [A]ll sorts of people were drawn in from the social sciences and humanities. Ellen Ullman engineering humanity people The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer. Ellen Ullman messiness programmers program Watching a program run is not as revealing as reading its code. Ellen Ullman watching run code reading My approach to being a self-taught programmer was to find out who was smart and who would be helpful, and these were - these are both men and women. And without learning from my co-workers, I never could've gone on in the profession as long as I did. Ellen Ullman women learning men long What I hope is that those with the knowledge of the humanities break into the closed society where code gets written: invade it. Ellen Ullman society break hope knowledge I am not intimidated by puerile boys acting like pre-teens. Ellen Ullman i-am like intimidated acting It is deep in our nature to make tools. Ellen Ullman deep make nature tools Programming is the art of algorithm design and the craft of debugging errant code. Ellen Ullman craft programming design art Computer programming has always been a self-taught, maverick occupation. Ellen Ullman been always programming occupation There's some intimacy in reading, some thoughtfulness that doesn't exist in machine experiences. Ellen Ullman machine some intimacy reading If you've ever watched someone who is a mother talk on the phone, feed the dog, bounce the baby, it's just astounding to see someone manage, more or less well, to do all those things. But on a computer, multitasking is really binary. The task is either in the foreground, or it's not. Ellen Ullman phone you dog mother A computer is not really like us. It is a projection of a very small part of ourselves: that portion devoted to logic, order, rule and clarity. Ellen Ullman us small like logic People imagine that programming is logical, a process like fixing a clock. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ellen Ullman nothing truth process people To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accommodations with failure, or the work will become intolerable. Ellen Ullman you failure work relationship
