If you had a "Wall Of Truth" to educate non-programmers, what would you post?

Question

At one organization, we didn't have offices or cubicles. We had tables in a conference room.

All conversations were public. Some folks would notice the repeated themes in some of the conversations, which lead us to put big posters on the "Wall of Truth" so we would not have to repeat ourselves so often.

Here are two examples:

No Database Changes After 4:30 or On a Friday.

Yes, We Can. As long is it doesn't involve time-travel, anti-gravity, or perpetual motion, we can do it. Do you have a cost-center to which we can charge the work?

What eternal truths would you post?

Answer 1

Read The Mythical Man Month.

Answer 2

Less is more.

so true...

Answer 3

The customer has no clue what solution they need.

Answer 4

"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."

-- Yogi Berra

Answer 5

Computers do exactly what you tell them to do.

Answer 6

Trust, but verify.

i.e. the "Fundamental Law of Debugging", and the positive corrollary to ASSUME:

Of course your code isn't buggy, but you should verify that before you claim the bug isn't in your code

Of course the table isn't empty, but you should verify that

Of course the file isn't empty, but you should verify that

Of course the file is well-formed XML, but you should verify that

Of course the pointer is not NULL, but you should verify that

Answer 7

"Do you want us to build what you asked for, or what you need?"

Answer 8

If you keep saying "Jump!", sooner or later we're going to hit our heads.