Ellen Ullman

Our Constitution is designed to change very slowly. It's a feature, not a bug. ”

Through the miracle of natural genetic recombination, each child, with the sole exception of an identical twin, is conceived as a unique being. Even the atmosphere of the womb works its subtle changes, and by the time we emerge into the light, we are our own persons. ”

All things change, but we always have to think: what are we leaving behind? ”

The world of programmers is not going to change on its own. ”

Productivity has always been the justification for the prepackaging of programming knowledge. But it is worth asking about the sort of productivity gains that come from the simplifications of click-and-drag. ”

What I hope is that those with the knowledge of the humanities break into the closed society where code gets written: invade it. ”

It had to happen to me sometime: sooner or later, I would have to lose sight of the cutting edge. That moment every technical person fears - the fall into knowledge exhaustion, obsolescence, techno-fuddy-duddyism - there was no reason to think I could escape it forever. ”

Computer systems could not work without standards - an agreement among programs and systems about how they will exchange information. ”

Y2K is showing everyone what technical people have been dealing with for years: the complex, muddled, bug-bitten systems we all depend on, and their nasty tendency toward the occasional disaster. ”

The human mind, as it turns out, is messy. ”