Quotes

A great swordsman knows when not to take a life. A great developer knows when not to add unnecessary code.

While it’s a common belief that an awesome coder types away at tremendous speed for hours producing hundreds of lines of code, the reality is – an enlightened developer spends hours in thinking and then writes as few as 20 lines of flawless code that works better than those thousand lines. The secret is – typing furiously at the keyboard and logical thinking don’t go together, you have to give the brain its recluse, pull everything together and then write your poetry.

When I first began to program I would see before me the whole problem in one mass. After three years I no longer saw this mass. Instead, I used subroutines. But now I see nothing. My whole being exists in a formless void. My senses are idle. My spirit, free to work without plan, follows its own instinct. In short, my program writes itself. True, sometimes there are difficult problems. I see them coming, I slow down, I watch silently. Then I change a single line of code and the difficulties vanish like puffs of idle smoke. I then compile the program. I sit still and let the joy of the work fill my being. I close my eyes for a moment and then log off.

– The Tao of Programming