Rob Brackett

“ To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time. → ”

“ One hundred rumors are not comparable to one look. → ”

“ Learning to write involves writing. Learning to design involves designing. Learning to code involves coding. → ”

“ What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. → ”

“ You don't build a house by only thinking about the facade. → ”

“ The nation needs a hero to save its citizens by proving that each person has the freedom and power to save themselves and each other. As employees represent a company’s reputation, we, the informed people, run this nation. We each have a brand to develop and are not properly allowed the time or the revenue to appreciate each other’s brands. Personal and societal appreciation drives revenue through localized spending and outside investment, proliferating personal progress, societal productivity, and national providence. → ”

“ When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It’s all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen. → ”

“ When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It’s all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen. → ”

“ When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It’s all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen. → ”

“ Don’t strive to make your presence noticed, make your absence felt. → ”

“ [The tools we build] have to be understandable. Don't confuse “understandable” with “simplicity.” → ”

“ Language design is library design and library design is language design. → ”

“ The bottom line is in heaven. → ”

“ There’s no such thing as bad weather. Only inappropriate clothing. → ”

“ Designing a dream city is easy; rebuilding a living one takes imagination. → ”

“ One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts. → ”

“ By working in an open manner, we hope that tomorrow's mistakes will be new ones. → ”

“ People don't realize that a rapidly growing company is crumbling within and feels pain every hour of every day because nothing works the way it was designed as little as a year before. → ”

“ It wasn't incremental but revelatory; and revelations, though hard-won, are viral. → ”

“ We are face to face with our destiny, and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For ours is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness of striving mighty; let us rather run the risk of wearing out rather than rusting out. → ”

“ I asked people, if they were playing Russian roulette with a gun with a billion barrels (or some huge number, so in other words, some low probability that they would actually be killed), how much would they have to be paid to play one round? A lot of people were almost offended by the question and they’d say, “I wouldn't do it at any price.” But, of course, we do that every day. They drive to work in cars to earn money and they are taking risks all the time, but they don't like to acknowledge that they are taking risks. They want to pretend that everything is risk free. → ”

“ Businesses that run cruise ships have to buy life preservers. Companies that sell alcohol have to keep it away from kids. And people who make communities on the web have to moderate them. → ”

“ When all this equipment arrived [at our high school], it was still in crates. …I remember the teacher saying, ‘Well, you can open any box you like, but there’s one condition: you have to read the manual first.’ This doesn't sound like a big deal, but to a student that just came to high school—to read a manual on how to use an oscilloscope, how to use a signal generator, a computer trainer, how to use all this advanced equipment—these were tricky textbooks to get through and understand. …we opened every single box. → ”

“ There was a huge storm in May of ’95… we had to go rent a power generator and take turns filling it with diesel fuel… we had meetings by candlelight with a bunch of prominent companies. We were trying to convince them, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re a real business,’ when you say, ‘Hold on, I gotta go fill up the tank.’ → ”

“ [When you're a big company,] everyone's watching… on Day One your service pretty much has to be feature-complete, and ready for hundreds of millions of users. Forget about corner-turns. Forget about dipping your big toe in to get a sense of the temperature. These are the advantages of the upstart, when they're starting. → ”

“ The ideal window of time to start and finish a prototype in (including design, implementation, testing, and iteration), is two days to two weeks. Anything longer than that sets off alarm bells. → ”

“ Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. → ”

“ Every human action gains in honour, in grace, in all true magnificence, by its regard to things that are to come. It is the far sight, the quiet and confident patience, that, above all other attributes, separate man from man, and near him to his Maker; and there is no action nor art, whose majesty we may not measure by this test. Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labour and wrought substance of them, 'See! this our fathers did for us.' For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or condemnation, which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity. It is in their lasting witness against men, in their quiet contrast with the transitional character of all things, in the strength which, through the lapse of seasons and times, and the decline and birth of dynasties, and the changing of the face of the earth, and of the limits of the sea, maintains its sculptured shapeliness for a time insuperable, connects forgotten and following ages with each other, and half constitutes the identity, as it concentrates the sympathy, of nations: it is in that golden stain of time, that we are to look for the real light, and colour, and preciousness of architecture; and it is not until a building has assumed this character, till it has been entrusted with the fame, and hallowed by the deeds of men, till its walls have been witnesses of suffering, and its pillars rise out of the shadows of death, that its existence, more lasting as it is than that of the natural objects of the world around it, can be gifted with even so much as these possess of language and of life. → ”

“ The reason that most of us are so unhappy most of the time is that we make our goals for the people we are when we set them, not for the people we’re going to be when we reach them. → ”

“ For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy. → ”

“ Future historians may regard [shipping coal to China] as one of those crazy, impractical feats of engineering, like Stonehenge, the pyramids, or the shelf life of Twinkies. → ”

“ You can’t just give into your own drives, or you simply end up writing the same book again and again. → ”

“ Inspiration and wealth will come to you if your goal is to help another person solve a problem. → ”

“ I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. → ”

“ Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it. → ”

“ I wouldn’t even know what [I’m aiming at as a mechanic] if I didn’t spend time with people who ride at a much higher level than I. → ”

“ [Being a good mechanic] connects me to… those who exemplify good motorcycling, because it is they who can best judge how well I have realized the functional goods I am aiming at. I wouldn't even know what those goods are if I didn't spend time with people who ride at a much higher level than I. → ”

“ All [human beings] by nature desire to know. → ”

“ The curious man is always a fornicator. → ”

“ I felt compelled to get to the bottom of things… but this lust for thoroughness is at odds with the world of human concerns in which the bike is situated, where all that matters is that the bike works. → ”

“ To be a good mechanic, you have to be constantly attentive to the possibility that you may be mistaken [about the problem you are fixing]. → ”

“ It is by having hands that man is the most intelligent of animals. → ”

“ Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films… But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script. → ”

“ Somebody said, “do you think that paging is better than scrolling?” And my answer to that is: well, there's some evidence that people like books more than they like scrolls. The Romans pretty much gave up scrolls. As soon as they started binding books, everyone preferred books. We've been paging ever since. Get over it! → ”

“ It’s true—some people fail to turn off a manual faucet. With it’s blanket presumption of irresponsibility, the infrared faucet doesn’t merely respond to this fact, it installs it. → ”

“ One is urged to consider the “opportunity costs” of fixing one's own car. “Time is money.” …[but] to fix one’s own car is not merely to use up time, it is to have a different experience of time, of one’s car, and of oneself. → ”

“ [Something may be] an intelligible claim, but that does not mean that intelligent people should take it seriously. → ”

“ A great designer is always the proxy of the reader, the user… not of the artist or the writer. → ”

“ Geeks like [me] are always tempted to implement very complex, never-ending features because they’re academically or algorithmically interesting, or because they can add massive value if done well… These features—often very easy for people but very hard for computers—often produce mediocre-at-best results, are never truly finished, and usually require massive time investments to achieve incremental progress with diminishing returns. → ”

“ Google attracts developers, but not consumers. → ”

“ Provide better carrots to lead the horses away from the rotting vegetables, which can be cleaned up later. → ”

“ We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. → ”

“ A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. → ”

“ Stop saying “But how can it be like that?” …Nobody knows how it can be like that. → ”

“ It is in some ways more troublesome to track and swat an evasive wasp than to shoot, at close range, an elephant. But the elephant is more troublesome if you miss. → ”

“ Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people… to destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of statesmanship. → ”

“ The best way to complain is to make things. → ”

“ If you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version you waited too long. → ”

“ Knowledge cannot advance when the reader is treated as a child. If you “protect” your reader, your next step is to lie to your reader. That is evil. → ”

“ Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation. → ”

“ A number of simple complementary techniques is usually more effective and economical than one comprehensive approach. → ”

“ It is important to hold to limitations in order to keep the project from burgeoning into a huge, expensive and time consuming effort. → ”

“ Anyone who wasn't there when the original problem was solved can never truly grok why they're doing things this way. They do it out of faith and tradition, perhaps fear—which can all-too-easily become religion and dogma. → ”

“ If you are able, take joy in cooking for others. If you aren’t, set the table. → ”

“ Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. → ”

“ We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals. → ”

“ People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. → ”

“ [Coffee] is the principal source of foreign exchange for dozens of countries… an immediate, tangible connection with the rural poor in some of the most destitute parts of the planet. It is a physical link across space and cultures from one end of the human experience to the other. → ”

“ Individuals are equal but cultures and ideas are not equal. → ”

“ The local specialty is Afghan Kebabs mixed with eggs (like the country itself, they're interesting but dangerous). → ”

“ If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all. → ”

“ [Chinese workers'] economic poverty is due to their political poverty. → ”

“ We break stuff before we know what replaces it, and we invent things before we know what they are for. Maybe we’re now living in the future tense. → ”

“ Quality is not an act, it is a habit. → ”

“ Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to. → ”

“ Fundamentally successful companies are unstable. And where we have to operate is in that unstable place. And the forces of conservatism which are very strong and they want to go to a safe place. I want to go to the same place for money, I want to go and be wild and creative, or I want to have enough time for this, and each one of those guys are pulling, and if any one of them wins, we lose. → ”

“ One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison. → ”

“ One is always a bit sheepish about writing quick and dirty programs. And yet some, if not most, of the best programs began that way. And some, if not most, of the most spectacular failures in software have been perpetrated by people trying to do the opposite. → ”