Masterminds of Programming Quotes

“Components are how people solve problems above a modest scale; it’s one thing that separates us from chimpanzees. We invented a way of solving problems by simply making it the other guy’s problem. It’s called specialization of labor, and it’s as simple as that. That’s how the humans differ from chimpanzees: they never invented that. They know how to make tools, they have a language, so for most of the obvious things there are no differences between chimps and humans. We discovered how to solve problems by making it the other guy’s problem — through an economic system.”
― Brad Cox, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“We’ll get security when people decide it’s important enough. They say it’s important, but the evidence is people don’t think it’s important enough to pay for. If it’s important enough, vendors will pay attention to it. It doesn’t matter what people say if they’re not willing to spend extra for it, cash and cycles and memory and things like that.”
― James Rumbaugh, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“Without commerce, advanced social orders can’t evolve, so we’re stuck in the primitive state where every nerd fabricates everything from first principles.”
― Brad Cox, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“If you look at forces that improved products like socks, sweaters, and Twinkies,the engine that drives that system is economics. It’s economics that breaks down for software so that it remains indefinitely in its present primitive stage of evolution.”
― Brad Cox, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“Without physical conservation laws backing up what ownership means, we’re left with only laws, courts, and lawyers, which ultimately escalates to police-state tactics.Imagine banks deciding to dispense with safes and locks, leaving money in the streets at night, and prosecuting those who steal it. Not a pretty picture.”
― Brad Cox, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“I’ve used the common wooden pencil in some of my writing as an example. When I ask audiences which is “simpler”, a digital pencil like Microsoft Word or a wooden pencil, people agree the wooden variety is simpler. Until I point out that Microsoft Word was written by eight programmers, while the wooden variety involved thousands, none of whom could appreciate the full complexity of harvesting lumber, mining graphite, smelting metals, making lacquer, growing rapeseed for oil, etc. The complexity was there in the pencil, but hidden from the user.”
― Brad Cox, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“Another problem I think we have is that the people who come from universities are educated in the latest silver bullets, but really don’t know how to deal with commercial software they’ve inherited from past practices. When they come out young and fresh and energetic, we cannot make them start with something that they consider old-fashioned. They would just not take the job, particularly in good times. These young and inexperienced but well-studied people become quite dominant in organizations and”
― Federico Biancuzzi, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages

“We invented a way of solving problems by simply making it the other guy’s problem. It’s called ​specialization of labor, and it’s as simple as that. That’s how the humans differ from chimpanzees: they never invented that.”
― Federico Biancuzzi, Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages