Quotes in the begining of chapters of IT books

I sometimes think the quotes that authors of software development books use to begin their chapters have some pretentiousness, sub-standardism and falsehood of meaning in them. They are not used free of satire. At least this is what comes of until I begin to read the chapter that follows, only to see the tangent the author intends to be drawing.

For instance, in the Mythical Man Month, chapter 15: The Other Face starts with:

What we do not understand, we do not possess.

and

O give me commentators plain,
Who with no deep researches vex the brain.

When I read them, I thought WTF!!!!! But you begin to see how pertinent the quote is only when you're in the middle of the chapter, when it makes profound sense.

And the quotes they use are mostly very banal and gross on the surface unlike you'll see if you pursue aesthetics, isn't it?

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

This is a quote, it was quote by someone, therefore it is absolute...

I have never ever liked that chain of thought, much prefer the method were we think for ourselves, read ever quote rather then assume it is correct.

I have a daily quote calendar on my desk, I love reading them, cut out the good ones, but mostly I think "what a load of crap"

Aussie Chick
Friday, April 16, 2004

Opinions are like assholes.  Everyone has one, and what comes out is mostly shit.

_
Friday, April 16, 2004

No, I am not saying it's nonsense or something. I mean the quotes in IT books do somewhat fit into the picture, but it is only mostly "awrying/contorting a message meant for something else to fit the description" types of instances you generally see. The distinction becomes even clearer if you read English poetry or literature and then come back to this stuff, its like a bathos from a subliminal altitude to pragmatism where everything is "utilized" to full value.

I may be wrong. I can hear some angry lover shout there...

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

I like quotes not because of who said them, but because they are generally concise ways to communicate a concept.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - many people think Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin said this. It's most often attributed to Voltaire, but recent research indicates it just "appeared" in the early 20th Century.

You know what? I don't care who said it - that doesn't matter. I like it because it is a quick and easy way to communicate an essay's worth of meaning about our First Amendment.

Philo

Philo
Friday, April 16, 2004

>Opinions are like assholes.  Everyone has one, and what comes out is mostly shit.

Ha...ha...so intelligent. Where do you find a quote like that!

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

>I don't care who said it - that doesn't matter.

Same here.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.... The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
-- Winston Churchill

Tapiwa
Friday, April 16, 2004

>It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations....

So do I read them with fervour.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Friday, April 16, 2004

I hate quotations.  Tell me what you know.

Saturday, April 17, 2004

I know I like quotations!

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Oy, noname. If you attribute the quote correctly, the irony is more pronounced.

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
  --  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tapiwa
Saturday, April 17, 2004

Quotations are for entertainment. They're a litle bit of the lighter stuff before you plunge back into the textbook stuff.

If you have no sense of humour, you can easily bypass them, so what's the problem?

I collect them. It stops me from getting too full of myself. :-)

http://www.sysprog.net/quotes.html

sysprog
Sunday, April 25, 2004

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