A programmer who truly sees his program as an extension of his own ego is not going to be trying to find all the errors in that program. On the contr… - Gerald M. Weinberg

In fact, the average programming manager would prefer that a project be estimated at twelve months and take twelve than that the same project be estimated at six months and take nine. This is an area where some psychological study could be rewarding, but there are indications from other situations that it is not the mean length of estimated time that annoys people but, rather, the standard deviation in the actual time taken. Thus, most people would prefer to wait a fixed ten minutes for the bus each morning than to wait one minute on four days and twenty-six minutes once a week-. Even though the average wait is six minutes in the second case, the derangement caused by one long and unexpected delay more than compensates for this disadvantage.

I’m reminded of the story of the village idiot whose antique watch stopped running. He pried it open and found a dead cockroach inside. “No wonder it doesn’t work,” he said, “the manager is dead.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has Its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be In awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. - Albert Einstein (From “Death of a Genius,” by William Miller, LIFE Magazine, May 2, 1955 © 1955 Time Inc.)