Ellen Ullman Quotes

Powerful Ellen Ullman for Daily Growth

About Ellen Ullman

Ellen Ullman (born April 14, 1955) is an American novelist, programmer, and essayist whose work explores the intersection of technology, society, and human connection. Raised in a working-class Jewish family in New York City, Ullman developed an early interest in computers after attending Hunter College's Science High School. She went on to study computer science at MIT, where she graduated in 1977. Ullman began her career as a programmer during the tech boom of the 1980s in Silicon Valley, working for companies such as Xerox PARC and Apple Computer. Her experiences in the male-dominated world of programming inspired her first novel, "The Bug," published in 1995, which is set in the high-tech industry and explores themes of gender, sexuality, and the nature of work. Ullman's second novel, "By Blood" (2000), delves into issues surrounding family history and identity. Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, and Wired, among other publications. Ullman's most recent book is the memoir "Living With Strangers: Unlearning the Internet," published in 2018, which reflects on her relationship with technology over the years and argues for a more intentional and less automatic engagement with digital platforms. Throughout her career, Ullman has been recognized as a pioneer in both the tech industry and literature. She was named one of the "Top 50 Women in Technology" by Business Week in 1993 and has received numerous literary awards for her writing. Ullman continues to write and speak about technology's impact on society, advocating for greater awareness and responsibility in our use of digital tools.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"I don't think there is a feminine programming language."

This quote by Ellen Ullman suggests that the characteristics and structures of programming languages are not inherently gendered, meaning there is no such thing as a "feminine" or "masculine" programming language. The choice of language, tools, and approaches in coding does not reflect the user's gender but rather their skills, preferences, and problem-solving strategies. This perspective encourages inclusivity and equal opportunities for all individuals to excel in technology fields regardless of their gender.

"The code does not lie."

This quote emphasizes the inherent truthfulness of computer code. In programming, every instruction is written explicitly, without room for personal bias or emotion. Once written and executed, a program will follow its instructions to the letter, producing exactly the results it was coded to produce. This can be both empowering (since you can reliably predict the outcomes of your programs) and humbling (since errors in the code are also unyieldingly revealed). It highlights the objective nature of programming, making it a fascinating blend of human creativity with mathematical rigor.

"Programming is like cooking: you have to follow a recipe, but every dish turns out a little differently."

This quote by Ellen Ullman implies that while programming (or coding) requires adhering to specific rules and instructions (similar to following a recipe in cooking), the final outcome is not always exactly as expected. Like cooking, each program or software may have slight variations due to factors such as individual coding style, machine behavior, or unforeseen complications. These subtle differences can lead to unique outcomes, just as every meal prepared from the same recipe may have minor distinctions in taste and texture.

"The computer doesn't know you're a beautiful woman. It has no idea who you are at all."

This quote emphasizes the impersonal nature of computers, suggesting that they lack the ability to recognize or appreciate human qualities such as beauty, emotion, or identity. They operate based on algorithms and programming, focusing solely on the information inputted without any personal bias or emotional connection. It underscores the divide between artificial intelligence and human experience, highlighting that while computers can perform complex tasks, they cannot understand or empathize with humans in a personal or intuitive way.

"I was learning how to be alone, not in the sense of physical aloneness, but in the sense of living with myself as the primary relationship."

This quote by Ellen Ullman signifies the journey towards self-discovery and personal growth. It's about developing a strong inner bond, understanding oneself deeply, and cultivating an intimate relationship with one's own thoughts, feelings, and identity. This process is not limited to solitude but rather, it emphasizes prioritizing one's emotional well-being and self-awareness above external relationships, thereby fostering personal independence and resilience.

The act of voting, to put it in computing terms, is a question of user interface.

- Ellen Ullman

Question, Computing, Act, Interface

My approach to being a self-taught programmer was to find out who was smart and who would be helpful, and these were - these are both men and women. And without learning from my co-workers, I never could've gone on in the profession as long as I did.

- Ellen Ullman

Learning, Men And Women, Both Men And Women

It will not work to keep asking men to change. Many have no real objective to do so. There's no reward for them. Why should they change? They're doing well inside the halls of coding.

- Ellen Ullman

Doing, Reward, Will, Coding

It had to happen to me sometime: sooner or later, I would have to lose sight of the cutting edge. That moment every technical person fears - the fall into knowledge exhaustion, obsolescence, techno-fuddy-duddyism - there was no reason to think I could escape it forever.

- Ellen Ullman

Reason, Sometime, Technical, Obsolescence

Multitasking, throughput, efficiency - these are excellent machine concepts, useful in the design of computer systems. But are they principles that nurture human thought and imagination?

- Ellen Ullman

Efficiency, Thought, Nurture

I broke into the ranks of computing in the early 1980s, when women were just starting to poke their shoulder pads through crowds of men. There was no legal protection against 'hostile environments for women.'

- Ellen Ullman

Through, Broke, Environments, Shoulder

With every advance, you have to look over your shoulder and know what you're giving up - look over your shoulder and look at what falls away.

- Ellen Ullman

Giving Up, Over, Away, Shoulder

I hate the new word processors that want to tell you, as you're typing, that you made a mistake. I have to turn off all that crap. It's like, shut up - I'm thinking now. I will worry about that sort of error later. I'm a human being. I can still read this, even though it's wrong. You stupid machine, the fact that you can't is irrelevant to me.

- Ellen Ullman

Stupid, Fact, Shut, New Word

Before the advent of the Web, if you wanted to sustain a belief in far-fetched ideas, you had to go out into the desert, or live on a compound in the mountains, or move from one badly furnished room to another in a series of safe houses.

- Ellen Ullman

Mountains, Before, Badly, Far-Fetched

No one in the government is seriously penalized when Social Security numbers are stolen and misused; only the number-holders suffer.

- Ellen Ullman

Numbers, Social, Penalized, Stolen

To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accommodations with failure, or the work will become intolerable.

- Ellen Ullman

Work, Will, Carefully, Intolerable

I don't know where anyone ever got the idea that technology, in and of itself, was a savior. Like all human-created 'progress,' computers are problematic, giving and taking away.

- Ellen Ullman

Away, Like, Idea, Savior

If you've ever watched someone who is a mother talk on the phone, feed the dog, bounce the baby, it's just astounding to see someone manage, more or less well, to do all those things. But on a computer, multitasking is really binary. The task is either in the foreground, or it's not.

- Ellen Ullman

Mother, Bounce, More Or Less, Foreground

Human thinking can skip over a great deal, leap over small misunderstandings, can contain ifs and buts in untroubled corners of the mind. But the machine has no corners. Despite all the attempts to see the computer as a brain, the machine has no foreground or background.

- Ellen Ullman

Small, Deal, Skip, Foreground

The web is just another stunning point in the two-hundred-thousand-year history of human beings on earth. The taming of fire; the discovery of penicillin; the publication of 'Jane Eyre' - add anything you like.

- Ellen Ullman

Like, Add, Penicillin, Publication

Computer programming has always been a self-taught, maverick occupation.

- Ellen Ullman

Computer, Always, Been, Self-Taught

The biggest problem is that people have stopped being critical about the role of the computer in their lives. These machines went from being feared as Big Brother surrogates to being thought of as metaphors for liberty and individual freedom.

- Ellen Ullman

Big, Big Brother, Role, Machines

What happens to people like myself, who have been involved with computing for a long time, is that you begin to see how many of the 'new' ideas are simply old ones coming back into view on the swing of the pendulum, with new and faster hardware to back it up.

- Ellen Ullman

Long, Back, Been, New Ideas

Each new tool we create ends an old relationship with the world and starts a new one. And we're changed by that relationship, inevitably. It changes the way we live, changes our patterns, changes our social organization.

- Ellen Ullman

New, Old, Social, Changed

Through the miracle of natural genetic recombination, each child, with the sole exception of an identical twin, is conceived as a unique being. Even the atmosphere of the womb works its subtle changes, and by the time we emerge into the light, we are our own persons.

- Ellen Ullman

Exception, Through, Womb

Programming is the art of algorithm design and the craft of debugging errant code.

- Ellen Ullman

Art, Design, Code, Programming

People imagine that programming is logical, a process like fixing a clock. Nothing could be further from the truth.

- Ellen Ullman

Process, Imagine, Fixing, Programming

Productivity has always been the justification for the prepackaging of programming knowledge. But it is worth asking about the sort of productivity gains that come from the simplifications of click-and-drag.

- Ellen Ullman

Asking, Always, Been, Programming

I think technical people now should learn literature, because literature teaches you a great deal about how - the depths and variety of human imagination.

- Ellen Ullman

Think, Deal, I Think, Depths

A computer is a general-purpose machine with which we engage to do some of our deepest thinking and analyzing. This tool brings with it assumptions about structuredness, about defined interfaces being better. Computers abhor error.

- Ellen Ullman

Some, About, Which, Defined

Programmers seem to be changing the world. It would be a relief, for them and for all of us, if they knew something about it.

- Ellen Ullman

Knew, About, Them, Relief

When you lose your Visa card, you get a new card with a new number, and any new charges with the old number are blocked. Why can't we do the same with Social Security numbers?

- Ellen Ullman

New, Old, Social, Visa

I think many people have wonderful stories inside them and the talent to tell those stories. But the writing life, with its isolation and uncertain outcomes, keeps most from the task.

- Ellen Ullman

Think, I Think, Stories, Uncertain

Internet voting is surely coming. Though online ballots cannot be made secure, though the problems of voter authentication and privacy will remain unsolvable, I suspect we'll go ahead and do it anyway.

- Ellen Ullman

Surely, Ballots, Though, Unsolvable

When I am writing, and occasionally achieve single focus and presence, I finally feel that is where I'm supposed to be. Everything else is kind of anxiety.

- Ellen Ullman

Kind, Achieve, Finally, Everything Else

Closed environments dominated the computing world of the 1970s and early '80s. An operating system written for a Hewlett-Packard computer ran only on H.P. computers; I.B.M. controlled its software from chips up to the user interfaces.

- Ellen Ullman

Software, Computing, Chips, Ran

Reading code is like reading all things written: You have to scribble, make a mess, remind yourself that the work comes to you through trial and error and revision.

- Ellen Ullman

Through, Like, Code, Revision

The ability to 'multitask,' to switch rapidly among many competing focuses of attention, has become the hallmark of a successful citizen of the 21st century.

- Ellen Ullman

Competing, Citizen, Hallmark, 21st Century

After we have put our intimate secrets and credit card numbers online, what can prevent us from putting our elections there as well?

- Ellen Ullman

Numbers, Putting, Intimate, Card

What I hope is that those with the knowledge of the humanities break into the closed society where code gets written: invade it.

- Ellen Ullman

Break, Code, Invade, Humanities

I used to pass by a large computer system with the feeling that it represented the summed-up knowledge of human beings. It reassured me to think of all those programs as a kind of library in which our understanding of the world was recorded in intricate and exquisite detail.

- Ellen Ullman

Computer, Used, Our, Intricate

It's possible to let technology absorb what we know and then re-express it in intricate mechanisms - parts and circuit boards and software objects - mechanisms we can use but do not understand in crucial ways. This not-knowing is fine while everything works as we expected.

- Ellen Ullman

Software, Circuit, Works, Intricate

The questions I am often asked about my career tend to concentrate not on how one learns to code but how a woman does.

- Ellen Ullman

Woman, Career, Code, Concentrate

I feel the best villains are the ones you have feelings for.

- Ellen Ullman

Best, Feel, Villains, Feelings

With code, what it means is what it does. It doesn't express, not really. It's a very bounded conversation. And writing is not bounded. That's what's hard about it.

- Ellen Ullman

Code, Very, Means, Conversation

The brain is plastic, continuously changing its organization.

- Ellen Ullman

Brain, Organization, Plastic, Continuously

The world of programmers is not going to change on its own.

- Ellen Ullman

Change, World, Going, Programmers

People talk about computer programmers as if computers are our whole lives. That's simply not true.

- Ellen Ullman

About, Lives, Whole, Programmers

UNIX always presumes you know what you're doing. You're the human being, after all, and it is a mere operating system.

- Ellen Ullman

Doing, Always, Human Being, Operating

All things change, but we always have to think: what are we leaving behind?

- Ellen Ullman

Think, Behind, Always, All Things

Introduced in the 1960s, multitasking is an engineering strategy for making computers more efficient. Human beings are the slowest elements in a system.

- Ellen Ullman

More, Making, Efficient, Strategy

So many people for so many years have promoted technology as the answer to everything. The economy wasn't growing: technology. Poor people: technology. Illness: technology. As if, somehow, technology in and of itself would be a solution. Yet machine values are not always human values.

- Ellen Ullman

Values, Years, So Many Years, Illness

When I am around people I most admire, I tend to hug the wall.

- Ellen Ullman

I Am, Most, Tend, Hug

The human mind, as it turns out, is messy.

- Ellen Ullman

Mind, Messy, Human, Human Mind

Our Constitution is designed to change very slowly. It's a feature, not a bug.

- Ellen Ullman

Constitution, Very, Feature, Designed

Y2K is showing everyone what technical people have been dealing with for years: the complex, muddled, bug-bitten systems we all depend on, and their nasty tendency toward the occasional disaster.

- Ellen Ullman

Dealing, Been, Technical, Disaster

'I am not adopted; I have mysterious origins.' I have said that sentence many times in the course of my life as an adopted person.

- Ellen Ullman

My Life, Sentence, Am, Adopted

I don't like the idea that Facebook controls how people express themselves and changes it periodically according to whatever algorithms they use to figure out what they should do or the whim of some programmer or some CEO. That bothers me a great deal.

- Ellen Ullman

Some, Deal, Whim, Great Deal

Staring prejudice in the face imposes a cruel discipline: to structure your anger, to achieve a certain dignity, an angry dignity.

- Ellen Ullman

Discipline, Cruel, Achieve, Staring

Tools are not neutral. The computer is not a neutral tool.

- Ellen Ullman

Tools, Computer, Neutral, Tool

I think that focusing all experiences through the lens of the Internet is an example of not being able to see history through the eyes of others, to be so enamored of one's present time that one cannot see that the world was once elsewise and was not about you.

- Ellen Ullman

Through, I Think, About, Lens

Some people hit a profession and just keep going deeper into it, making a life and making it more and more stable. That's not been my experience. I always want to try something new.

- Ellen Ullman

Experience, Some, Been, Stable

Evolution, dismissed as a sloppy programmer, has seen fit to create us as a wild amalgam of everything that came before us: except for the realm of insects, the whole history of life on earth is inscribed within our bodies.

- Ellen Ullman

Within, Sloppy, Before, Insects

I came of technical age with UNIX, where I learned with power-greedy pleasure that you could kill a system right out from under yourself with a single command.

- Ellen Ullman

Pleasure, Technical, Learned, Command

It is one thing for an artist to experiment on a canvas, but it's entirely different to experiment on a living creature.

- Ellen Ullman

Living, Canvas, Experiment, Entirely

My mother told me that my birth mother got pregnant by a married man who didn't want to leave his wife.

- Ellen Ullman

Wife, Want, Married Man, Pregnant

Technology does not run backward. Once a technical capability is out there, it is out there for good.

- Ellen Ullman

Once, Technical, Does, Capability

I'm in no way saying that women can't take a tough code review. I'm saying that no one should have to take one in a boy-puerile atmosphere.

- Ellen Ullman

Tough, Code, Atmosphere, Review

I'm a pessimist. But I think I'd describe my pessimism as broken-hearted optimism.

- Ellen Ullman

Think, Pessimism, I Think, Pessimist

The computer's there to serve the human being, not vice versa.

- Ellen Ullman

Computer, Human Being, Vice, Vice Versa

I like the little semi-competencies of human beings, I realize. Governance, after all, is a messy business, a world of demi-solutions and compromise, where ideals are tarnished regularly.

- Ellen Ullman

Business, Like, Ideals, Compromise

I'm pretty bad at crying.

- Ellen Ullman

Bad, Pretty, Crying

Abhorring error is not necessarily positive.

- Ellen Ullman

Positive, Necessarily, Error

Has Google appropriated the word 'search?' If so, I find it sad. Search is a deep human yearning, an ancient trope in the recorded history of human life.

- Ellen Ullman

History, Deep, Google, Recorded

Truly new inventions take time to play out.

- Ellen Ullman

Play, New, Take, Inventions

A computer is not really like us. It is a projection of a very small part of ourselves: that portion devoted to logic, order, rule and clarity.

- Ellen Ullman

Small, Very, Devoted, Small Part

There is always one more bug to fix.

- Ellen Ullman

More, Fix, Always, Bug

Computer systems could not work without standards - an agreement among programs and systems about how they will exchange information.

- Ellen Ullman

Will, Agreement, Could, Programs

I was a girl who came into the clubhouse, into the treehouse, with the sign on the door saying, 'No girls allowed,' and the reception was not always a good one.

- Ellen Ullman

Door, Always, Allowed, Clubhouse

It has occurred to me that if people really knew how software got written, I'm not sure they'd give their money to a bank or get on an airplane ever again.

- Ellen Ullman

Give, Sure, Occurred, Airplane

You can only get a beginner's mind once.

- Ellen Ullman

Mind, Get, Once, Beginner

With all the attention given to the personal computer, it's hard to remember that other companion machine in the room - the printer.

- Ellen Ullman

Other, Companion, Given, Machine

There's some intimacy in reading, some thoughtfulness that doesn't exist in machine experiences.

- Ellen Ullman

Intimacy, Some, Exist, Machine

I won't use Twitter. Twitter posts are thought-farts. I don't care about unconsidered thoughts of the moment.

- Ellen Ullman

Thoughts, Use, About, Posts

Our relationship to the computer is much like our relationship to the car: rich, complex, socially messy.

- Ellen Ullman

Car, Computer, Like, Messy

I don't consider myself a Jewish writer.

- Ellen Ullman

Myself, Jewish, Writer, Consider

Watching a program run is not as revealing as reading its code.

- Ellen Ullman

Reading, Run, Code, Revealing

I hate to see capable, smart people out of work - young or old.

- Ellen Ullman

Young, Smart People, See, Smart

I fear for the world the Internet is creating.

- Ellen Ullman

Fear, World, Creating, Internet

Writing was a way to get away from my life as a programmer, so I wanted to write about other things, but of course nobody wanted to publish another story about a family, unless it was extraordinary. When I began writing about my life as a programmer, however, people were interested.

- Ellen Ullman

My Life, Other, However, Programmer

Y2K has challenged a belief in digital technology that has been almost religious.

- Ellen Ullman

Digital, Been, Religious, Challenged

Genetics is where we come from. It's deeply natural to want to know.

- Ellen Ullman

Want, Natural, Genetics, Deeply

I think storytelling in general is how we really deeply know things. It's ancient.

- Ellen Ullman

Think, How, General, Deeply

When I hear the word 'disruption,' in my mind, I think of all these people in the middle who were earning a living. We will sweep away all that money they were earning, and we will move that to the people at the top.

- Ellen Ullman

Mind, Think, Sweep, Top

When knowledge passes into code, it changes state; like water turned to ice, it becomes a new thing, with new properties. We use it, but in a human sense, we no longer know it.

- Ellen Ullman

New, Code, Turned, Passes

I like mysteries.

- Ellen Ullman

Like, Mysteries

I am not intimidated by puerile boys acting like pre-teens.

- Ellen Ullman

I Am, Like, Am, Intimidated

We don't have to live up to our computer.

- Ellen Ullman

Live, Up, Our, Computer

I'm a dark thoughts writer.

- Ellen Ullman

Thoughts, Writer, Dark

The condition of my personal workspace is my own business, as I see it.

- Ellen Ullman

Business, See, My Own, Condition

Software and digital devices are imbued with the values of their creators.

- Ellen Ullman

Software, Creators, Devices, Digital

Writing is a very isolating occupation.

- Ellen Ullman

Writing, Very, Occupation

It is deep in our nature to make tools.

- Ellen Ullman

Nature, Deep, Our, Tools

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