Sooty's Sayings

Sooty's Sayings are gathered from many sources; some are copies, some have been modified from the originals, and some are Sooty's creations. To say they contain hidden wisdoms that are relevant to business processes and technology is a little pretentious - they are offered here for your amusement.


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (from Arthur C. Clarke).


Administrative procedures are not a maze that clever people must navigate to get things done, they are the platform clever people stand on to reach the stars.


The basis for any good time management system is you cannot think about more than one thing at a time.
Try this:
                Time flies like an arrow
                Fruit flies like a banana


At the core of any large complex system that works are a bunch of smaller simple systems that work.


If you can't measure it you can't control it. Any process that is not being measured is by definition "out of control".


Including good diagnostics at the design stage avoids having to come up with good excuses at the implementation stage.


To System Designers: the shape of a tool determines how it is used.
If you build only hammers your users will think everything is a nail. Try to build systems that enable and empower.

Keep your disaster plans simple: If something goes wrong your IQ drops 10 points. If your boss finds out your IQ drops another 10 points. Some operations people get to meet the CEO in person for the first time during a disaster - if you can't look smart at least look prepared.


Something a little sexist: Women are good at scanning the horizon for danger, men are good at digging in a hole for answers. A coed team will get the job done without getting eaten by predators.


Tell someone there are a billion billion stars in the universe and they will believe you, tell someone there is wet paint on the bench and they will touch it to see.


For you OO folks: People who do coverage testing in glass boxes should not have classes that throw uncaught exceptions.


When the promise of real change has been exposed as an illusion an attempt to simply change the illusion will be met with outrage.
. . . or "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me".


There is a simple solution to every problem and it will probably be wrong. Take a skeptical view and replace your certainty with a healthy respect for the complexity of all things.

Sooty welcomes contributions to this page but Sooty reserves the right to edit or ignore any suggestions received.