Quotes

Quote from Gilad Bracha

"Tangent: Yes, I did spend ten years at Sun. A lot of it was spent arguing that Java was not the final step in the evolution of programming languages. I guess I’m just not very persuasive."

Gilad is one of my heroes. The work he's doing on Newspeak seems very, very promising.

Sun totally failed in ignoring him. I remember when he left he posted an unflattering blog about Sun, about how he felt that he couldn't get anything done there. He was very frustrated. I'm very glad to feel like I have something in common with such a smart guy.

Quote from Anders Hejlsberg

From Masterminds of Programming, which is (so far) an absolutely fabulous book:

"I think to be really good at something, you have to be passionate about it too. That's something you can't learn. That's just something that you have, I think. I got into programming not because I wanted to make lots of money or because someone told me to. I got into it because I just got totally absorbed by it. You just could not stop me. I had to write programs. It was the only thing I wanted to do. I was very, very passionate about it.

You have to have that passion to get really good at something, because that makes you put in the hours, and the hours are the real key. You need to put in a lot of work."

Anyone who knows me well knows that this describes me exactly. I particularly like, "You just could not stop me. I had to write programs, It was the only thing I wanted to do." I guess I have an important quality in common with another of my heroes. For some childish reason, I'm very excited about this.

Quote from Bill Venners

"I charge $1 for each paren, and $598 for knowing where to put them!"

'Nuff said!