# (wiki) Book Highlights & Quotes **URL:** \ **Category:** breadcrumbs\ **Created:** [March 23, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://pluralist.net/t/wiki-book-highlights-quotes/117 "2024-03-23T22:09:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![delyan](https://pluralist.net/user_avatar/pluralist.net/delyan/32/245_2.png) [@delyan](https://pluralist.net/u/delyan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://pluralist.net/t/wiki-book-highlights-quotes/117/1 "2024-03-23T22:09:16Z")
From [Michael Lopp’s **Managing Humans**](https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-Software-Engineering/dp/1430243147) - ch 30 “Hacking is Important”: > Back in the early 1990s, Borland International was the place to be an engineer. Coming off the purchase of Ashton-Tate, Borland was the third-largest software company, but, more importantly, it was a legitimate competitor of Microsoft. Philippe Kahn, the CEO at the time, was fond of motorcycles, saxophones, and brash statements at all-hands meetings: “ **We’re barbarians, not bureaucrats!** ” * * * From **[Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter From The Facebook Filing](https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-DLB-36470)** by David Benoit published in [The Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/) on Feb. 1, 2012 Our favorite snippet: > **The Hacker Way** > … hacking just means **building something quickly** [done by] idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world [via] continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. **They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo**. Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. [This is a] hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.” … the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people. > To encourage this approach, every few months we have a **hackathon** , where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. > [Principles:] > > - Focus on Impact > - Move Fast > - Be Bold > - Be Open > - Build Social Value