Every so often I read an essay that I end up thinking about, and citing in conversation, over and over again.

Here’s my index of all the ones of those I can remember!

Nelson Elhage, Computers can be understood

Dan McKinley, Choose Boring Technology

Sandy Metz, The Wrong Abstraction

Patrick McKenzie, Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names

Thomas Ptacek, The Hiring Post

Gergely Orosz, The Product-Minded Engineer

tef, Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend … tef also wrote a follow-up, Repeat yourself, do more than one thing, and rewrite everything

Joel Spolsky, The Law of Leaky Abstractions

Reflections on software performance by Nelson Elhage

Brandur Leach’s series on using databases to ensure correct edge-case behavior: …

Jeff Hodges, Notes on Distributed Systems for Young Bloods

J.H. Saltzer, D.P. Reed and D.D. Clark, End-to-End Arguments in System Design

Bret Victor, Inventing on Principle

Hara Hachi Bu is a saying from Okinawa in Southern Japan that advises people to stop eating when they’re 80% full. Okinawa is famous for the longevity of the people who live there.

The more literal translation of hara hachi bu is stomach eight parts (out of ten).

We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

Taoist Proverb

(via Garr Reynolds – Lessons from the Bamboo – TEDxTokyo )

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

— Robert J. Hanlon in Hanlon’s razor

Some variations:

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ignorance.