tl;dr:"Too often, I see relatively inexperienced developers dive in and start writing a big complex thing: Then they can’t even get it to compile because it’s so big and complex. They ask for help, saying, “I’m having trouble with this one line of code,” but as you study what they have written, you realize that this one line of code is hardly the problem. The program hasn’t even gotten to the point where it can comprehend the possibility of executing that line of code. I mutter to myself, “How did you let it get this bad?”" Raymond gives the steps he takes to build a component.
tl;dr:Raymond advises starting software projects with a 'do-nothing' component to establish a good foundation. The step-by-step approach lets developers debug and validate at each stage, making problem-solving easier. He encourages incremental complexity to keep projects manageable and on track.
tl;dr:"Because I’m not here to ridicule the lackluster sales of the Mach 20 hardware. I’m here to ridicule the lackluster sales of the Mach 20 software.... That leaves three customers who purchased a copy and didn’t return it. And the support specialist had personally spoken with two of them."
tl;dr:The question “What if two programs did this?” is helpful in evaluating a feature or a design request. Combining this with “Imagine if this were possible” leads to an impressive one-two punch, explained by examples in this post.
tl;dr:"A colleague of mine shared a story from Windows XP product support. A major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” would crash certain models of laptops."