Failure Quote by Ellen Ullman
““I had this idea we would have ordered some good champagne, launched toast after toast to our humanity, which after all had created everything: the opportunities for the bug, the bug itself, and its solution. I think now it might have changed us, softened our failures, made us feel we belonged to—had a true stake in—those lives full of code we had separately stumbled into. I like to think it would have reassured him, saved him: To know that at the heart of the problem was the ancient mystery of time. To discover that between the blinks of the machine’s shuttered eye—going on without pause or cease; simulated, imagined, but still not caught—was life.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder, 1981
The quote reflects on how shared rituals like toasting could humanize tech work, linking code creation to deeper meaning and the mystery of time.
In simple terms: Rituals can humanize tech work and connect code to deeper meaning.
Key Takeaway
Embrace shared moments to find purpose in tech.
Themes
humanity
technology
meaning
rituals
time
Mood
contemplative
hopeful
reflective
Type
philosophical
inspirational
reflective
When to use this quote
- team meetings
- software development retrospectives
- tech conferences
- personal reflection
- creative brainstorming
Key Concepts
existential reflection
community building
philosophical perspective
Questions to Reflect On
- How can rituals improve team cohesion?
- What does “the ancient mystery of time” mean for developers?
A Different Perspective
May overlook practical constraints of project timelines and resource limits.
![“I've always written. I'm from an older generation of programmers [who] did not come out of engineering. [A]ll sorts of people were drawn in from the social sciences and humanities.” quote by Ellen Ullman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/341/ellen-ullman-3943_engineering_i-ve-always-written-i-m-from-an-older-ge_363898.jpg)
