Joel Spolsky Quotes

Quotes about:

• Listen to your customers, not your competitors.

  Joel Spolsky

  Motivational, Business, Competitors

  Joel Spolsky (2004). “Joel on Software”, p.336, Apress

  47 Copy quote

• Design adds value faster than it adds cost.

  Joel Spolsky

  Design, Coders, Add

  11 Copy quote

• There's a subtle reason that programmers always want to throw away the code and start over. The reason is that they think the old code is a mess. [...] The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a cardinal, fundamental law of programming: It's harder to read code than to write it.

  Joel Spolsky

  Writing, Thinking, Law

  Joel Spolsky (2004). “Joel on Software”, p.184, Apress

  7 Copy quote

• If something seems possible, that's probably because someone is already doing it. When something seems that it can't possibly work, nobody tries it. Real innovation happens when someone tries anyway, overlooking an obvious flaw, and finds a way to make an idea work.

  Joel Spolsky

  Real, Ideas, Innovation

  7 Copy quote

• Nothing works better than just improving your product.

  Joel Spolsky

  Business, Improving, Products

  19 Copy quote

• Good software, like wine, takes time.

  Joel Spolsky

  Wine, Programming, Software

  9 Copy quote

• Talk to your customers. Find out what they need. Don't pay any attention to the competition. They're not relevant to you.

  Joel Spolsky

  Competition, Needs, Attention

  13 Copy quote

• Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other.

  Joel Spolsky

  Beer, Ugly, Coyotes

  19 Copy quote

• Beware of Methodologies. They are a great way to bring everyone up to a dismal, but passable, level of performance, but at the same time, they are aggravating to more talented people who chafe at the restrictions that are placed on them.

  Joel Spolsky

  People, Levels, Way

  "Big Macs vs. The Naked Chef". Personal Website, www.joelonsoftware.com. January 18, 2001.

  7 Copy quote

• It's harder to read code than to write it.

  Joel Spolsky

  Writing, Harder, Code

  Joel Spolsky (2004). “Joel on Software”, p.184, Apress

  8 Copy quote

• Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.

  Joel Spolsky

  Business, Improving, Products

  15 Copy quote

• A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would.

  Joel Spolsky

  Program, User Interface, Wells

  "User Interface Design For Programmers". Book by Joel Spolsky, www.joelonsoftware.com. October 24, 2001.

  11 Copy quote

• If your goals is to produce something of permanent value, you start to think differently about you want on the site.

  Joel Spolsky

  Thinking, Goal, Entrepreneur

  16 Copy quote

• Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it.

  Joel Spolsky

  Important, Shipping, Products

  "The Duct Tape Programmer" by Joel Spolsky, www.joelonsoftware.com. September 23, 2009.

  9 Copy quote

• Life is a bit hard sometimes, and sometimes you have to step up and fight fights that you never signed up for.

  Joel Spolsky

  Fighting, Steps, Sometimes

  14 Copy quote

• People ridiculously overvalue aesthetics and beauty when evaluating products. It's one of the reasons iPods, and, for that matter, Keanu Reeves, are so successful.

  Joel Spolsky

  Successful, Ipods, People

  "The Road to FogBugz 4.0: Part IV". www.joelonsoftware.com. March 31, 2005.

  13 Copy quote

• So if you want to get things done, you positively have to understand at any given point in time what is the most important thing to get done right now and if you're not doing it, you're not making progress at the fastest possible rate.

  Joel Spolsky

  Progress, Important, Done

  5 Copy quote

• Writing code is not production, it's not always craftsmanship though it can be, it's design.

  Joel Spolsky

  Writing, Design, Programming

  7 Copy quote

• Something is usable if it behaves exactly as expected.

  Joel Spolsky

  Programming, Behave, Expected

  "Usability in One Easy Step (First Draft)". Article by Joel Spolsky, www.joelonsoftware.com. March 7, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• Common programmer thought pattern: there are only three numbers: 0, 1, and n.

  Joel Spolsky

  Numbers, Three, Patterns

  4 Copy quote

• An idea isn't worth that much. It's the execution of the idea that has value. If you can't convince one other person that this is something to devote your life to, then it's not worth it.

  Joel Spolsky

  Ideas, Execution, Persons

  5 Copy quote

• Software development takes immense intellectual effort. Even the best programmers can rarely sustain that level of effort for more than a few hours a day. Beyond that, they need to rest their brains a bit, which is why they always seem to be surfing the Internet or playing games when you barge in on them.

  Joel Spolsky

  Playing Games, Effort, Surfing

  12 Copy quote

• If you can't understand the spec for a new technology, don't worry: nobody else will understand it either, and the technology won't be that important.

  Joel Spolsky

  Technology, Worry, Important

  4 Copy quote

• Entrepreneurship boils down to the simple fact that a team of really smart people who can get things done are going to get smart, useful things done.

  Joel Spolsky

  Smart, Team, Simple

  4 Copy quote

• That's another flaw with performance-based rewards: They are easy for one of your competitors to top.

  Joel Spolsky

  Rewards, Flaws, Easy

  7 Copy quote

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