The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

God is in the details

I bought the second edition of Dan Appleman's famous book, "Moving to VB.NET, Strategies...blah..I forget.." some two months ago. One fine day, I began reading it.

[OFF TOPIC]
Not like it matters to anyone but my conscience. More than once, I vehemently ill-worded Appleman's writing prowess in relation to his book "Win32 for the VB 5 guy..." (I mean you know the name, its my third day and second night out of bed, please...).

All the time during the first four chapters of the book, I would actually press it close to my bosom and kiss the pages. I eat my own words and say again, "Dan is a wonderful author, and he knows his word." However, the Win32 book for the VB guy is still horrible, because its nothing more than MSDN rehashed with a few hundred pages of comments.
[/OFF TOPIC]

At the start of one of the chapters, I encountered this quote:

"God is in the details"

I remember reading this quote the first time in the year 2001, when Deepak Chopra's book, "How to Know God" was published. He had created an online discussion forum at http://www.howtoknowgod.com, with his interviews with some scientists and other authors of the field published on the site.

I also recollect seeing the phrase during a serendipity search for information on Scientology.

Because I didn't continue reading the chapter from then, I couldn't gauge what the phrase might have meant.

What does the phrase "God is in the detail(s)" actually mean?

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

Continue reading the chapter...

Mr. Obvious
Friday, April 16, 2004

I have the book at home, and I am just now in the office. And I would be going back home only, umm, about 27 or 28 hours later. So I asked. If you know the meaning, tell me. I am dying to know.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

Dude - are you drunk, or just that tired?

~
Friday, April 16, 2004

One man who's a symbol of, umm...I dont know what wrote:

>Dude - are you drunk, or just that tired?

Good question! I don't know. I am a tea totaller (mind my spelling).

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

Fart: Symbol of destruction.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

The devil too, is in the details

http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/596.html

Tapiwa
Friday, April 16, 2004

Yeah, I've been through that page.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

I just read "Stupid White Men" by Mr. Michael Moore, and then I thought: what the fuck is going on with this country?

And then I woke up: it's not my country.

And I smiled.

Engineer
Friday, April 16, 2004

Okay, I'll bite.

"God is in the details" means simple rules beget complex patterns. It means ideas are cheap, execution is expensive. It means no human knows everything. Finally, it means small is beautiful.

Josh

Josh No-Spam Jones
Saturday, April 17, 2004

"God is in the details" means that you should pay close attention to the details of whatever you are working on because the small details end up being very important. It's one of those quotes that's been attributed to more than one person, but I think the consesus is that it's was orinated by an architect (a German, I think).

There's also a corollary - "The Devil is in the details" that means if you don't pay attention to the details, they'll come back to bite you.

See the thread on The Apprentice for a good example of both phrases coming to fruition.

Nick
Saturday, April 17, 2004

It's most commonly associated with Mies Van de Rohe, but was not originated by him.

Stephen Jones
Saturday, April 17, 2004

Sathyaish Chakravarthy

>I am a tea totaller (mind my spelling).

Ok I will mind it....Actually it is *teetotaller*...although your misspelling is cute since you seem to be Indian -- who drink lot of tea :-)

Like they say the god is in the details...and I hope you are not an atheist!

Code Monkey
Monday, April 19, 2004

:) Thanks for the detail, Code Monkey. No, I ain't athiestic at all. :)

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Tuesday, April 20, 2004