In software engineering, we have the term 'technical debt.' When you don't do a job correctly, unaddressed problems become harder and harder to solve.
I went to the Home Depot, which was unnecessary. I need to go to the Apartment Depot. Which is just a big warehouse with a whole lot of people standing around saying "We don't have to fix anything."
The fact of the matter is the West Wing never gets fully renovated because nobody wants to vacate it. And so you have basically patch-up jobs that are being done, but it's a tight and cramped environment.
Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in
There was a rule, back when I was an education lawyer in Alabama, about visiting public schools: always go on a rainy day so you can see how badly the roofs leak.
Ferraris always have problems. You can't drive them every day.
So if the wall's cracked or you've got leaky faucets, or you've got mold issues, or some sort of damage to your home, selling a home that's got that kind of distress to it is the biggest mistake you will make, because immediately people who are fearful will walk away.
Bamboos can go from shining health to shabbiness in weeks. The problem is too much wind, too little water and tired compost.
Everyone moans about the collapsing U.S. infrastructure.
Opening my door to Dillon Ruddick, my bulding super. I handed him a cup of coffee. "Sorry about the blood." "What was it this time?" No one reported gunfire." "I hit a guy in the face with a hair dryer." "Whoa." Dillon said. "It wasn't my fault," I told him. "Maybe we should lay down some linoleum here. It would make things easier for clean up.
Yes, I am a quantum mechanic! Those darn quantum computers break all the time.
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.
Personally, in my home, the district in central New York, the Air National Guard base, not 5 years ago, the commandant came through and said, This is one of the sorriest looking bases I have ever seen.
Things rarely get fixed the way they need to be.
When you as a designer design something that burdens a community with maintenance and old world technology, basically failed developed world technology, then you will crush that community way beyond bad design; you'll destroy the economics of that community, and often the community socially is broken.
I want a house that has got over all its troubles; I don't want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.
The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems.
The agency [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] still emphasizes reactor designs, instead of the more important safety problems, which focus on the soft spots: ongoing maintenance of the reactors and operator training.
I shared this insight with some other boat owners, and they all agreed that, definitely, putting your boar into the water is asking for trouble. Most of them have had their boats sitting in their driveways long enough to be registered historical landmarks.
A landlord is showing a couple around an apartment. The husband looks up and says, 'Wait a minute. This apartment doesn't have a ceiling.' The landlord answers, 'That's OK. The people upstairs don't walk around that much.'
