Insightful Opinions from 'Hackers and Painters'

You are asking for trouble if you try to decide what to do without understanding how to do it.


... research must be original--and as anyone who has written a PhD dissertation knows, the way to be sure that you are exploring virgin territory is to stake out a piece of ground that no one wants.

Relentlessness wins, because in the aggregate, unseen details become visible.

Great software, likewise, requires fanatical devotion to beauty. If you look inside software, you find that parts no one is ever supposed to see are beautiful too.

Fashion is mistaken for good design; moral fashion is mistaken for good.

To launch a taboo, a group has to be poised halfway between weakness and power. A confident group doesn't need taboos to protect it.

And just as there is nothing so unfashionable as the last discarded fashion, there is nothing so wrong as the principles of the most recently defeated opponent.

When people are bad at math, they know it, because they get the wrong answers on tests. But when people are bad at open-mindness, they don't know it. In fact they tend to think the opposite.

Working to implement one idea gives you more ideas. So shelving an idea cost not only that delay in implementing it, but also all the ideas that implementing it would have led to.

Software has to be designed by hackers who understanding design, not designers who know a little about software.

Wealth is what you want, not money.

Money is not wealth. It's just something we use to move wealth around.

It's doing something people want that matters, not joining the group.

A startup is not merely ten people, but ten people like you.

A McDonald's franchise is controlled by rules so precise that it is practically a pieces of software. Write once, run everywhere.

You get paid by doing or making something people want, and those who make more money are often simply better at doing what people want.

How much someone's work is worth is not a policy question. It's something the market already determines.

The same principles of good design crop up again and again.

Humor is related to strength. To have a sense of humor is to be strong: to keep one's sense of humor is to shrug off misfortunes, and to lose one's sense of humor is to be wounded by it.

A novice imitates without knowing it; next he tries consciously to be original; finally, he decides it's more important to be right than original.

Languages evolve slowly because they're not really technologies. Languages are notation. A program is a formal description of the problem you want a computer to solve for you.

As technologies improve, each generation can do things that the previous generation would have considered wasteful.

Programming languages are not just technology, but what programmers think in.

So the short explanation of why this 1950s language is not obsolete is that it was not technology but math, and math doesn't get stale.

The most important part of design is redesign.

People who do good work often think whatever they're working on is no good. Others see what they've done and think it's wonderful, but the creator sees nothing but flaws. This pattern is no coincidence: worry made the work good.

The people I know who do great work think they suck, but that everyone else sucks more.

And yet, making what works for the user doesn't mean simply making what the user tells you to. Users don't know what all the choices are, and are often mistaken about what they really want. It's being like a doctor. You can't just treat a patient's symptoms. When a patient tells you his symptoms, you have to figure out what's actually wrong with him, and treat that.

The point is, you have to pick some group of users. I don't think you can talk about good or bad design except with reference to some intended user.

Design means making things for humans. But it's not just the user who's human. The designer is human too.



最后編輯于
?著作權(quán)歸作者所有,轉(zhuǎn)載或內(nèi)容合作請(qǐng)聯(lián)系作者
  • 序言:七十年代末,一起剝皮案震驚了整個(gè)濱河市钾菊,隨后出現(xiàn)的幾起案子全谤,更是在濱河造成了極大的恐慌,老刑警劉巖南誊,帶你破解...
    沈念sama閱讀 223,002評(píng)論 6 519
  • 序言:濱河連續(xù)發(fā)生了三起死亡事件咒唆,死亡現(xiàn)場(chǎng)離奇詭異硼补,居然都是意外死亡,警方通過(guò)查閱死者的電腦和手機(jī)拇勃,發(fā)現(xiàn)死者居然都...
    沈念sama閱讀 95,357評(píng)論 3 400
  • 文/潘曉璐 我一進(jìn)店門四苇,熙熙樓的掌柜王于貴愁眉苦臉地迎上來(lái),“玉大人方咆,你說(shuō)我怎么就攤上這事月腋。” “怎么了?”我有些...
    開封第一講書人閱讀 169,787評(píng)論 0 365
  • 文/不壞的土叔 我叫張陵榆骚,是天一觀的道長(zhǎng)片拍。 經(jīng)常有香客問(wèn)我,道長(zhǎng)妓肢,這世上最難降的妖魔是什么捌省? 我笑而不...
    開封第一講書人閱讀 60,237評(píng)論 1 300
  • 正文 為了忘掉前任,我火速辦了婚禮碉钠,結(jié)果婚禮上纲缓,老公的妹妹穿的比我還像新娘。我一直安慰自己放钦,他們只是感情好色徘,可當(dāng)我...
    茶點(diǎn)故事閱讀 69,237評(píng)論 6 398
  • 文/花漫 我一把揭開白布。 她就那樣靜靜地躺著操禀,像睡著了一般。 火紅的嫁衣襯著肌膚如雪横腿。 梳的紋絲不亂的頭發(fā)上颓屑,一...
    開封第一講書人閱讀 52,821評(píng)論 1 314
  • 那天,我揣著相機(jī)與錄音耿焊,去河邊找鬼揪惦。 笑死,一個(gè)胖子當(dāng)著我的面吹牛罗侯,可吹牛的內(nèi)容都是我干的器腋。 我是一名探鬼主播,決...
    沈念sama閱讀 41,236評(píng)論 3 424
  • 文/蒼蘭香墨 我猛地睜開眼钩杰,長(zhǎng)吁一口氣:“原來(lái)是場(chǎng)噩夢(mèng)啊……” “哼纫塌!你這毒婦竟也來(lái)了?” 一聲冷哼從身側(cè)響起讲弄,我...
    開封第一講書人閱讀 40,196評(píng)論 0 277
  • 序言:老撾萬(wàn)榮一對(duì)情侶失蹤措左,失蹤者是張志新(化名)和其女友劉穎,沒(méi)想到半個(gè)月后避除,有當(dāng)?shù)厝嗽跇淞掷锇l(fā)現(xiàn)了一具尸體怎披,經(jīng)...
    沈念sama閱讀 46,716評(píng)論 1 320
  • 正文 獨(dú)居荒郊野嶺守林人離奇死亡,尸身上長(zhǎng)有42處帶血的膿包…… 初始之章·張勛 以下內(nèi)容為張勛視角 年9月15日...
    茶點(diǎn)故事閱讀 38,794評(píng)論 3 343
  • 正文 我和宋清朗相戀三年瓶摆,在試婚紗的時(shí)候發(fā)現(xiàn)自己被綠了凉逛。 大學(xué)時(shí)的朋友給我發(fā)了我未婚夫和他白月光在一起吃飯的照片。...
    茶點(diǎn)故事閱讀 40,928評(píng)論 1 353
  • 序言:一個(gè)原本活蹦亂跳的男人離奇死亡群井,死狀恐怖状飞,靈堂內(nèi)的尸體忽然破棺而出,到底是詐尸還是另有隱情,我是刑警寧澤昔瞧,帶...
    沈念sama閱讀 36,583評(píng)論 5 351
  • 正文 年R本政府宣布指蚁,位于F島的核電站,受9級(jí)特大地震影響自晰,放射性物質(zhì)發(fā)生泄漏凝化。R本人自食惡果不足惜,卻給世界環(huán)境...
    茶點(diǎn)故事閱讀 42,264評(píng)論 3 336
  • 文/蒙蒙 一酬荞、第九天 我趴在偏房一處隱蔽的房頂上張望搓劫。 院中可真熱鬧,春花似錦混巧、人聲如沸枪向。這莊子的主人今日做“春日...
    開封第一講書人閱讀 32,755評(píng)論 0 25
  • 文/蒼蘭香墨 我抬頭看了看天上的太陽(yáng)秘蛔。三九已至,卻和暖如春傍衡,著一層夾襖步出監(jiān)牢的瞬間深员,已是汗流浹背。 一陣腳步聲響...
    開封第一講書人閱讀 33,869評(píng)論 1 274
  • 我被黑心中介騙來(lái)泰國(guó)打工蛙埂, 沒(méi)想到剛下飛機(jī)就差點(diǎn)兒被人妖公主榨干…… 1. 我叫王不留倦畅,地道東北人。 一個(gè)月前我還...
    沈念sama閱讀 49,378評(píng)論 3 379
  • 正文 我出身青樓绣的,卻偏偏與公主長(zhǎng)得像叠赐,于是被迫代替她去往敵國(guó)和親。 傳聞我的和親對(duì)象是個(gè)殘疾皇子屡江,可洞房花燭夜當(dāng)晚...
    茶點(diǎn)故事閱讀 45,937評(píng)論 2 361

推薦閱讀更多精彩內(nèi)容

  • **2014真題Directions:Read the following text. Choose the be...
    又是夜半驚坐起閱讀 9,595評(píng)論 0 23
  • 前天升的芭概, 昨天星期六,搗鼓了一天∨卫恚現(xiàn)在還沒(méi)玩明白谈山。 但是,好玩宏怔,好看奏路。 一直用電腦就是windows系統(tǒng),視窗是...
    海上私享家閱讀 457評(píng)論 0 0
  • 沒(méi)有憂患臊诊,不缺衣少吃鸽粉,總是昏昏噩噩。 生病時(shí)才感覺(jué)自己是活著的抓艳。 正所謂生于憂患死于安樂(lè)触机。
    舒克and貝塔_ed4c閱讀 354評(píng)論 0 0
  • 天地大旱,精靈的守護(hù)地一片干裂,更是顆粒無(wú)收儡首。 而身為族長(zhǎng)的母親早就帶著一幫人去尋找生命之光了片任,聽說(shuō)它在地球之心,...
    枝樓閱讀 420評(píng)論 0 0
  • 我微信上有一位寶媽蔬胯,是做微商的对供,主營(yíng)童裝。人很勤奮氛濒,每天刷屏次數(shù)在40-50的樣子产场,朋友圈基本都是商品圖,偶爾會(huì)曬...
    元兵閱讀 244評(píng)論 0 0