Aphorisms

NB: I use this as my test article for this site.

Early on, I took a "Pollock" approach to software development. Some strange bug would appear and I'd have no place to start, no real initial lead, and no understanding of where to first explore.

Troubleshooting and development are skills that build with time, and everyone has their own spin on how to best approach either of them. Catchphrases and quotes inspire everyone when developing, classics like Fred Brooks' "No Silver Bullet" and such are immortal. But, when approaching new things that I'm totally lost in, these aphorisms from outside of software engineering have helped me find my way in. I'm mostly maintaining this list and the interpretations of each quote for my own reference, but I hope this helps others too.

"When you hear hoofbeats behind you, think horses, not zebras." - Theodore Woodward

"A man can have as many diseases as he damn well pleases." - John Bamber Hickam

Both applicable almost always. Maybe the real bug is two bugs in a trenchcoat, hanging out. Or, maybe it's the simplest possible thing, and you're already overcomplicating it.

"The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep." - G. K. Chesterton

Lifted nearly directly from The Grug Brained Developer - Almost all things are done for a reason. Don't touch things until you can reason with their reasons.

"New medicines, and new methods of cure always work miracles for a while." - William Heberden

New technologies are perfect miracles until they are not, just like every other technology.

"[A disaster's] consequences may well become a classical example of the staggering paradoxes that result from mixing good intentions with panic." - Wilfred Trotter

If you're rushing in a crisis you'll create more failures later.