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It always helps to be a good programmer. It is important to like computers and to be able to think of things people would want to do with their computers.

The world is changing, and I believe that, if I want to stay employed as a programmer, I'm going to have to change with it.

Even though I had the talent, programming just didn't feel right. I never considered it very seriously. Some people get gratification from bending a machine to their will. I didn't.

People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.

I don't understand computers. I've been unable to construct a working mental model of how they do what they do. I can break software by looking at it. I can blow anything up. Without trying. It's sort of like being a dowser. And this extreme elaborate clumsiness on my part is actually something people will pay me for. It's quite wonderful.

I've been programming computers since elementary school, where they taught us, and I stuck with computer science through high school and college.

I didn't set out to be at the top of technology companies. I'm just geeky and shy, and I like to code.

Out of grad school, I worked as a tech writer for a while before going into computer coding for a living.

I write my programs primarily for myself.