Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program.

The brain alone is intricate beyond mapping, powerful beyond imitation, rich in diversity, self-protecting, and self-renewing. The secret is that it is grown, not built.

A scientist builds in order to learn; an engineer learns in order to build.

Men and months are interchangeable commodities only when a task can be partitioned among many workers with no communication among them.

When a task cannot be partitioned because of sequential constraints, the application of more effort has no effect on the schedule. The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.

The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.

The boss must first distinguish between action information and status information. He must discipline himself not to act on problems his managers can solve, and never to act on problems when he is explicitly reviewing status.