Commonplace
Commonplace book
Things worth keeping: lines from books, tools I recommend, and notes to my future self. Filed, not polished.
- QuoteJun 2026
There are two ways of constructing a software design: one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
— C. A. R. Hoare, The Emperor's Old Clothes (1980)
- MarginaliaMar 2026
Butler feared the machines would inherit us. I think the danger is gentler and more mundane: that we build tools loud enough to be noticed instead of good enough to be forgotten. A watch you have to think about is a watch that is broken.
— after Samuel Butler, Erewhon