Quotes About Understanding

Until you walk a mile in another man's moccasins you can't imagine the smell.

Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach flunked geography.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. —James Thurber (1894–1961)

Until you walk a mile in another man's moccasins you can't imagine the smell.

Ideas give life meaning. Our minds need ideas the way our bodies need food. We are starved for visions, hungry for understanding. We are caught up in the routines of life, distracted occasionally by those activities we call "recreation" and "entertainment." What we as a nation have lost is the joy of thinking, the challenge of understanding, the inspirations as well as the consolations of philosophy.

The proper use of comments is to compensate for our failure to express ourself in code. Note that I used the word failure. I meant it. Comments are always failures.

Lots of very funny code is written because people don't take the time to understand the algorithm.

A good architecture comes from understanding it more as a journey than as a destination, more as an ongoing process of enquiry than as a frozen artifact.

If we really want to spend our days programming, we are going to have to learn to talk to—people.1

Because this ratio is so high, we want the reading of code to be easy, even if it makes the writing harder. Of course there's no way to write code without reading it, so making it easy to read actually makes it easier to write.

Professionals use their powers for good and write code that others can understand.

The hardest thing about choosing good names is that it requires good descriptive skills and a shared cultural background. This is a teaching issue rather than a technical, business, or management issue.

That these acts are simple doesn't mean that they are simplistic, and it hardly means that they are easy.

The name of a variable, function, or class, should answer all the big questions. It should tell you why it exists, what it does, and how it is used. If a name requires a comment, then the name does not reveal its intent.

Architecture should reveal operation. The architecture of the system should elevate the use cases, the features, and the required behaviors of the system to first-class entities that are visible landmarks for the developers. This simplifies the understanding of the system and, therefore, greatly aids in development and maintenance.

You know you are working on clean code when each routine turns out to be pretty much what you expected.

Any comment that forces you to look in another module for the meaning of that comment has failed to communicate to you and is not worth the bits it consumes.

Ward's principle: "You know you are working on clean code when each routine turns out to be pretty much what you expected.

Truth can only be found in one place: the code.

A long descriptive name is better than a short enigmatic name. A long descriptive name is better than a long descriptive comment.

One difference between a smart programmer and a professional programmer is that the professional understands that clarity is king. Professionals use their powers for good and write code that others can understand.

To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is small wonder that people who have been demanding all their lives to be heard so often fall speechless when confronted with one who gravely agrees to lend an ear. Man clamors for the freedom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frigthened.

A chrysanthemum by any other name would be a lot easier to spell.

Building trust requires talking and thinking about trust.