eCrane Blogging

“Discipline involves a person choosing to work in a way that requires consistency.  Process involves a person following instructions.  Of the two, discipline is the more powerful.  A person who is choosing to act with consistency and care will have a far better effect on the project than a person who is just following instructions.  The common mistake is in thinking that somehow a process will impart discipline.”

- Alistair Cockburn, Agile Software Development, page 188

Hey, but it’s much easier to try to impose a process!  It’s hard to find good, disciplined people, isn’t it?  This also speaks to the issue of developers not just being interchangeable parts.  A disciplined developer who does consistently good work is worth much more than a developer who will only do good work if they are required to by a process.

Here are a few more quotes from Hackers and Painters. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

“What hackers and painters have in common is that they’re both makers. Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things.” (page 18)

“Those in authority tend to be annoyed by hacker’s general attitude of disobedience. But that disobedience is a byproduct of the qualities that make them good programmers.” (page 51)

“It’s odd that people think of programming as precise and methodical. Computers are precise and methodical. Hacking is something you do with a gleeful laugh.” (page 54)

Here are some great quotes from the first chapter of Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham. I enjoyed the whole book, but particularly the chapter where he looks at the issue of why nerds are unpopular.

“Being smart seems to make you unpopular.” (page 1)

“Nerds serve two masters. They want to be popular, certainly, but they want even more to be smart. And popularity is not something you can do in your spare time, not in the fiercely competitive environment of an American secondary school.” (page 3)

“I didn’t realize that the reason we nerds didn’t fit in was that in some ways we were a step ahead. We were already thinking about the kind of things that matter in the real world, instead of spending all our time playing an exacting but mostly pointless game like the others.” (page 9)

“Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chuck of the day so adults can get things done.” (page 10)

“One can find people who promise to get things right the first time, but one is unlikely to find people who actually get things right the first time.”

- Alistair Cockburn in Agile Software Development (page 73)