“..most social software is built around providing personalized, socially-focused conversation. It’s person-centered and as a result is difficult for anybody but that person to really appreciate..

“Working at a startup you get told no — a lot.

Unless you’ve spent time in sales, you are probably not familiar with being told no a lot. Go watch Death of a Salesman and then Glengarry Glen Ross. That’s roughly what it’s like. You’re going to get told no by potential employees, potential investors, potential customers, potential partners, reporters, analysts… Over and over and over. Better start working on your fake smile.

“Who cares if you get free soft drinks or not? What really matters is what the work is like [at your employer].

“20 to 25% of the queries we see today, we have never seen before

“Large systems suck. This rule is 100% transitive. If you build one, you suck.

“It is a sad fact that most schools don’t require you to take compilers in order to graduate with a Computer Science degree.

“The bayonet stems directly from the various forms of polearm. It was obviously inappropriate to have a firearm-bearing soldier encumbered by a pike, yet there was need for a polearm to stand off cavalry.. The original “bayonnette” - the name came from the town of its supposed origin, Bayonne in France - was introduced into the French Army in 1647.

“Darcs is dead to me. The software itself is broken: you can’t have common operations on large datasets requiring exponential or even polynomial time. Its development process is broken: there is no planning, a constant stream of pet features added, no focus on fixing the real issues. The source code is an unreadable, undocumented mess (and not because it’s in Haskell).

“One misses nothing that one has never possessed.