Trifles

Just last night I was reading a book I borrowed from a friend of mine. That book was The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman. In the introduction of the book by Mr. Harlan Ellison quoted a phrase attributed to Michelangelo: "Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle." Mr. Ellison wrote about this: "Hardly a sentiment for our times, for a world of assembly lines and buck passing and litterbugs." I immediately thought these quotes described my sentiments perfectly.

There seems to be little attention payed to craftsmanship at least from what I've seen. No pride placed in the quality of work. Perhaps this is true of all professions, and that all professionals are too pressed for time to deal with the trifles of perfection. While I agree with Dijkstra about the impossibility of bug free software. Every trifle handled every bug fixed is one step closer toward that unattainable goal.