Thoughtful hackers hear about Unix and try to use it. Ordinary hackers hear about Unix and mess about with it a little. Thoughtless hackers hear about Unix and crack wise about it. It wouldn't be Unix if there weren't wisecracks about it. So we establish the following rules: The most brilliant Unix seems the most obscure. Advanced Unix seems like retrocomputing. The most powerful code seems like just loops and conditionals. The clearest code seems to be opaque. The sharpest tools seem inadequate. Solid code seems flaky. Stable code seems to change. Great methodologies don't have boundaries. Great talent doesn't code fast. Great music makes no sound. The ideal elephant has no shape. The Unix Way has no name. Yet for just this reason it brings things to perfection.