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Elegance is necessarily unnatural, only achieveable at great expense. If you just do something, it won't be elegant, but if you do it and then see what might be more elegant, and do it again, you might, after an unknown number of iterations, get something that is very elegant.

— Erik Naggum

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More quotes by Erik Naggum

Languages shape the way we think, or don't.

Structure is nothing if it is all you got. Skeletons spook people if they try to walk around on their own. I really wonder why XML does not.

C++ is a language strongly optimized for liars and people who go by guesswork and ignorance.

The only way to improve your work or life is by understanding and examining why you do what you do.

A system needs to be alive and workable even when other people than the first enthusiasts start using it. Reinvention and revolution are enthusiast stuff. Invention and evolution are engineering.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Erik Naggum (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.