5. Pithy sayings

Couple notes from Murphy’s Laws of Combat – Anonymous

Bill Jones Jr. — Sun, 01 May 2005 22:23:00 GMT

“If it’s stupid but it works in combat, it ain’t stupid.” Remember the hedge-row busters at Normandy?

“Tracers work both ways.” Be careful when, how and who you shot at.

"A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked."

Bill Jones Jr. — Sun, 01 May 2005 22:19:00 GMT

John Gall as quoted by Grady Booch. Ken Spencer and Billy Hollis reminded us all about this one at the last Tech Fusion in Raleigh.

Forget this one at your personal peril.

“If this stuff was easy, they wouldn’t need developers.”

Bill Jones Jr. — Sun, 01 May 2005 22:18:00 GMT

Me again. I’ve been saying this for decades.

“No code before it’s time.”

Bill Jones Jr. — Sun, 01 May 2005 22:16:00 GMT

By Bill Jones (me) sometime in the last century… Don’t code ANYTHING we think we might need sometime. If nobody’s gonna use it – don’t code it. It’s gonna change before it gets real. We do, of course, have to make our code extensible “because it is always gonna change.