Ward Cunningham quotes - page 3

I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?" (Ward Cunningham)
I think we can become excellent predictors. It's just that we're careful not to depend upon prediction anymore than we have to. View quote
Ward Cunningham
My specific purpose for the first wiki was to create an environment where we might link together each other's experience to discover the pattern language of programming. View quote
Ward Cunningham
People can and do trust works produced by people they don't know. The real world is still trying to figure out how Wikipedia works. View quote
Ward Cunningham
Putting a new feature into a program is important, but refactoring so new features can be added in the future is equally important. View quote
Ward Cunningham
My hope is that wiki becomes a totem for a way of interacting with people. View quote
Ward Cunningham
Often as you move comments around and have similar comments adjacent to each other, you find that half of the words can be cut out. Because a sentence says it all if the sentence is in just the right place. View quote
Ward Cunningham
I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter. View quote
Ward Cunningham
I'm not a fan of classification. It's very difficult to come up with a classification scheme that's useful when what you're most interested in is things that don't fit in, things that you didn't expect. View quote
Ward Cunningham
I wanted to invent some software that was completely different, that would grow and change as it was used. That's how wiki came about. View quote
Ward Cunningham
The web has been an experiment in anonymity. (Ward Cunningham)
Everything is subject to refactoring. View quote
Ward Cunningham
A wiki is always in the process of being organized. View quote
Ward Cunningham
The complexity that we despise is the complexity that leads to difficulty. View quote
Ward Cunningham
A wiki is a place to write in the same way that a party is a place to talk. View quote
Ward Cunningham
To worry about tomorrow is to detract from your work today. Time you spend thinking about tomorrow is time you're not spending thinking about what to do today. View quote
Ward Cunningham
In creating wiki, I wanted to stroke that story-telling nature in all of us. View quote
Ward Cunningham
Taking it to the limit. And the fact that it actually holds up - and a lot of it improves - when taking it to the limit is why it should naturally be called "Extreme." Kent's single biggest contribution is being daring enough to say, "This is all that matters, and we should do it all the time." View quote
Ward Cunningham
Anonymity relieves refactoring friction. Have learned that people want to sign things. But try to write in a way where you don't have to know who said it. View quote
Ward Cunningham
I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter. To just be able to make a decision and see what happens is tremendously empowering, but that means you have to set up the situation such that when something does go wrong, you can fix it. View quote
Ward Cunningham
The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer. (Ward Cunningham)
My specific purpose for the first wiki was to create an environment where we might link together each other's experience to discover the pattern language of programming. I had previously worked with a HyperCard stack that was set up to achieve the same kind of goal. I knew people liked to read and author in that HyperCard stack, but it was single user. View quote
Ward Cunningham
A wiki is always in the process of being organized. But for every hour spent organizing, two more hours are spent adding new material. So the status quo for a wiki is always partially organized. View quote
Ward Cunningham
Often as you move comments around and have similar comments adjacent to each other, you find that half of the words can be cut out. Because a sentence says it all if the sentence is in just the right place. On Ward's wiki, the process has been called "refactoring," which is what we call the process in software. Ward's wiki is about software and it has software people on it, so they call it refactoring. Anyplace else it would probably be called editing. So on Ward's wiki, refactoring is an ongoing process. The assumption is that when something turns out to not be ideal, it will be refactored again. Everything is subject to refactoring. View quote
Ward Cunningham
It was a turning point in my programming career when I realized that I didn't have to win every argument. I'd be talking about code with someone, and I'd say, "I think the best way to do it is A." And they'd say, "I think the best way to do it is B. I'd say, "Well no, it's really A." And they'd say, "Well, we want to do B." It was a turning point for me when I could say, "Fine. Do B. It's not going to hurt us that much if I'm wrong. It's not going to hurt us that much if I'm right and you do B, because, we can correct mistakes. So lets find out if it's a mistake." View quote
Ward Cunningham