My favorite Ziobrando quotes

Alberto Brandolini

Every once in a while Alberto Brandolini - also known as “Ziobrando” - generates brilliant quotes.

These are some of my personal favorites:

#4 Darth Vader doesn’t apologise in public.

When you are a true leader, you feel comfortable about admitting that you are wrong. When you are an “old-style boss” you are supposed to have all the answers, and can never be wrong.

If you happen to work for people who lead by terror, you might find some comfort in this quote.

#3 Technical debt is not like debt with the bank. It’s debt with the mob.

Have a debt with the mob, and they will not bother you for a year, until all of a sudden they point a gun at your head.

Ignore technical debt and you are in a similar situation: it will come and haunt you at the worst possible moment.

Whenever people tell you refactoring is optional, give them this quote.

#2 Software is a learning process, working code is a side-effect.

People tend to think they can create a big design/model up front that will cope with all situations and exceptions. Unless you’ve been handling the same model for years, you are usually wrong.

This comes from one of his talks about Domain Driven Design.

“I need one design/framework to rule them all” => unlikely to succeed, especially on the first try.

#1 The B.A.P./Bullshit Assymetry Principle

This is one of his most famous quotes, and I can see why:

The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

In business, people come up with ideas that are pretty bad, but they turn into a valid concept due to politics or bad judgement. (Somewhat related to #4.)

Proving that the idea is wrong and getting people to understand that usually takes way more effort than introducing it.

Moral of the story: carefully consider ideas before you commit to them.

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