Sam Altman Quotes

I like writing code. I like building product. I like making things that people like.

Software Engineering might be science; but that's not what I do. I'm a hacker, not an engineer.

If you know how to make software, then you can create big things.

Many days I don't write any code at all, and some days I spend all day writing code.

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

There are people who do things in tech that have the same skill sets that journalists have. They write, they edit, they put out press releases.

We're the toolmakers. Our developers are the real creative geniuses.

Software eventually and necessarily gained the same respect as any other discipline.

I did write some code in Java once, but that was the island in Indonesia.

I think a lot of great software has been written by people who are scratching a short-term itch, something which has been niggling them for ages, but in the back of their mind they’ve got a wonderful long-term plan.

Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch type has to do with writing poetry

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.

I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If that was the case, Microsoft would have great products.

Developers, developers, developers, developers.

Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse)

I just want to build great products.

I grew up as a computer scientist, and I've always been fascinated by algorithms.

I knew a bit about the capabilities of HTML5 and have always had a preoccupation with technology. I wanted to delve deeper, to see what else it could do. The technology becomes the palette that you make the artwork with, your palette and your paint.

As technologists, we all write code.

I don't like programming. It's tedious.

The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future.

Programming is how we talk to the machines that are increasingly woven into our lives. If you aren't a programmer, you're like one of the unlettered people of the Middle Ages who were told what to think by the literate priesthood. We had a Renaissance when more people could read and write; we'll have another one when everyone programs.

It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation.

Programming in the abstract sense is what I really enjoy. I enjoy lots of different areas of it... I'm taking a great deal of enjoyment writing device drivers for Linux. I could also be having a good time writing a database manager or something because there are always interesting problems.

Listening, Testing, Coding, Designing. That's all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.