A long time ago, Fred Brooks put this text into his book the Mythical Man-Month. I shared it on Facebook in 2010, and it seems that every year Facebook highlights it on the anniversary of me first sharing it.

I find it truly inspirational.

“The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought. Building castles in the air, from air, creating directly from imagination.

Unlike the poet’s words, the program is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs one can interact with. Once the correct incantation is entered on a keyboard, the screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be. ” – Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month.

If you have never read the Mythical Man Month, you are truly missing out on a wonderful book that’s full of inspiration, and thought provoking essays.