To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. … - Ellen Ullman

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True worth is as inevitably discovered by the facial expression, as its opposite is sure to be clearly represented there. The human face is nature's tablet, the truth is certainly written thereon.

Ellen Ullman

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.

Become, Errors, Failure, Make, Programmer, Programmers

Same Author Quotes

We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins

Build, Cities, Plan, Ruins, Way

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.

Barely, Computer, Ignorance, Lying, Sea

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.

Coke, Down, Room, Rooms, Whiteboards, Yellow

Software engineering is not about right and wrong but only better and worse

Engineering, Software, Software Engineering, Worse, Wrong

But you can't stop knowing something, can you?

Knowing, Knowing Something, Stop