Ellen Ullman Quotes

#1. But now what? Is this a ticket to a new understanding of my life, or a bomb that's going to blow up everything?

Consider one more possibility: that you remain essentially the same person you were, neither new nor destroyed.

Ellen Ullman

#2. Do I have to recite any further risks you have taken? How much you have not conformed? How much internal bravery this implies?

Ellen Ullman

#3. To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accomodations with failure, or the work will become intolerable.

Ellen Ullman

#4. We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins

Ellen Ullman

#5. I've always written. I'm from an older generation of programmers [who] did not come out of engineering. [A]ll sorts of people were drawn in from the social sciences and humanities.

Ellen Ullman

#6. Software engineering is not about right and wrong but only better and worse

Ellen Ullman

#7. But you can't stop knowing something, can you?

Ellen Ullman