How does a project get to be a year late? … One day at a time. - Fred Brooks

The complexity of software is an essential property, not an accidental one. Hence, descriptions of a software entity that abstract away its complexity often abstracts away its essence.

The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.

Study after study shows that the very best designers produce structures that are faster, smaller, simpler, clearer, and produced with less effort. The differences between the great and the average approach an order of magnitude.