Hints for Computer System Design (1983) [pdf]

I used to re-read this every couple of months, until I had memorized it. Despite its age, almost everything in it remains relevant and fresh.

Posted many times but without much discussion. This from 2017 contains a link to Lampson's talk updating the paper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14154898.

Lots of quotable quotes in here!

“generalizations are generally wrong” - Lampson

“We are faced with an insurmountable opportunity.” - W. Kelley

“Algol 60 was not only an improvement on its predecessors, but also on nearly all its successors.” (C. Hoare)

Etc. - I won’t go through the whole thing now :-)

> Bob Morris suggested that a shared interactive system should have a large red button on each terminal. The user pushes the button if he is dissatisfied with the service, and the system must either improve the service or throw the user off; it makes an equitable choice over a sufficiently long period. The idea is to keep people from wasting their time in front of terminals that are not delivering a useful amount of service.

This is a great idea.