A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: a complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a simple system.

—John Gall, Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail

Low-level things are likely to work correctly since there's tremendous pressure for them to do so. Because otherwise, all the higher-level stuff will collapse, and everybody will go "AAAAAAAAAA!!" Higher-level things carry less weight. OK, so five web apps are broken by this browser update (or an update to a system library used by the browser or any other part of the pyramid). If your web app broke, your best bet is to fix it, not to wait until the problem is resolved at the level below. The higher your level, the loner you become. Not only do you depend on more stuff that can break, there are less people who care in each particular case.

—Yossi Kreinin, Blog Post: Low-level is Easy

In the beginning you always want results. In the end all you want is control.

Build a mountain

If you do work that compounds, you'll get exponential growth. Most people who do this do it unconsciously, but it's worth stopping to think about. Learning, for example, is an instance of this phenomenon: the more you learn about something, the easier it is to learn more. Growing an audience is another: the more fans you have, the more new fans they'll bring you.

The trouble with exponential growth is that the curve feels flat in the beginning. It isn't; it's still a wonderful exponential curve. But we can't grasp that intuitively, so we underrate exponential growth in its early stages.

—Paul Graham, How to do Great Work

This whole idea of "the stack" that people have now. People thinks it's ok to say like "the stack". I mean yes that's factual that there is a stack of software in some sense, but it's way bigger than it should, by any right, be and it's bad to refer to the "the stack" without at least whincing inside a little bit... The picture that is sold to people, including to professional developers, via their own sense of self-deception, is that this "stack" is a miracle of modern technology and that it's amazing and great, and really it's actually very embarassing. It's like when you keep pooping your pants, and there's more and more in there, you shouldn't be proud of how much poop is in your pants.

—Jonathan Blow, Twitch Stream

Figuring out the right product is the innovator's job, not the customer's job

If you don't know what you want, you'll be unlikely to get it.