

Social experiment - single thoughts on programming that made an impact - RiderOfGiraffes

With the indulgence of the regulars, I'd like to try an experiment.  Recently, as a result of an item here, I read an article from which a single line has stuck.  It wasn't the most profound, it wasn't the most amusing, it wasn't even necessarily the most valuable, but it's one that has immediately made me think differently, and will be with me a long time.<p>I'd like to create a collection of such things.  I'm pretty sure things that affect you guys will be of varying value, but if we make a list and then let them float up and down as they get modded, maybe we'll get something interesting.<p>Replies are discouraged.  These will not be universal truths, they will not be unarguable, but I suggest that this is not the place.  Perhaps if you <i>really</i> disagree you can blog about it and submit a link.  But perhaps not here - perhaps as a main item.<p>Worth a try?  Who will play along?  I'll start ...
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RiderOfGiraffes
You can't make your program run faster, you can only make it do less.

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anamax
Almost any problem can be solved by adding a level of indirection. Almost
every program can be sped up by removing a level of indirection.

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reddiar
The hardest bugs are those where your mental model of the situation is just
wrong, so you can't see the problem at all : B. Kernighan

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bayareaguy
The cheapest, fastest and most reliable components of a computer system are
those that aren't there. -- Gordon Bell

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anamax
Someone reading/modifying a program is never as smart as the person who wrote
it, even if they're the same person.

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anamax
If you don't know the tradeoffs that you're making, how do you know that
you're making the right ones?

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asimjalis
Make it beautiful even if you are just hacking together a quick spike.

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hboon
Make it run, make it right, make it fast. In that order.

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anamax
All programming is an exercise in caching.

