Free Culture (2004)
Context: The law should regulate in certain areas of culture — but it should regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, "Why not?"
We should ask, "Why?" Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.
“Show me your flowcharts and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won’t usually need your flowcharts; they’ll be obvious.”
Source: The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975, 1995), Pp. 102–3.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Fred Brooks 20
American computer scientist 1931Related quotes
White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (2006)
Context: Before I get started, if anybody needs anything else at their tables, just speak slowly and clearly into your table numbers. Someone from the NSA will be right over with a cocktail.
Turning Tables, written by Adele and Ryan Tedder.
Song lyrics, 21 (2011)
“Show me your garden, provided
it be your own, and I will tell you what you are
like.”
Source: The Garden that I Love (1905)
Letters published in the Buffalo News (10 June 2001)
2000s
“Let me get this straight. Your table ran away because you polished it with Windex?”
Source: The Demigod Files
“I couldn’t see what you could show me
Your scarf had kept your mouth well hid”
Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
Source: Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada; Cien sonetos de amor