I would therefore like to posit that computing's central challenge, how not to make a mess of it, has not yet been met.

Programming in Basic causes brain damage.

A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.

... as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and to respect my limitations and give them full credit, rather than to try to ignore them, for the latter vain effort will be punished by failure.

Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons.

...Simplifications have had a much greater long-range scientific impact than individual feats of ingenuity. The opportunity for simplification is very encouraging, because in all examples that come to mind the simple and elegant systems tend to be easier and faster to design and get right, more efficient in execution, and much more reliable than the more contrived contraptions that have to be debugged into some degree of acceptability....Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.