<story><title>Akin&apos;s Laws of Spacecraft Design</title><url>http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dotancohen</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  &amp;gt; #20 A bad design with a good presentation is doomed
  &amp;gt; eventually. A good design with a bad presentation
  &amp;gt; is doomed immediately.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
This should be the Y Combinator motto. It is one of the axioms that is represented here again and again, both explicitly and implicitly.</text></comment>
<story><title>Akin&apos;s Laws of Spacecraft Design</title><url>http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>teleforce</author><text>Awesome list of engineering wisdoms!&lt;p&gt;This one probably the best:&lt;p&gt;36:Any run-of-the-mill engineer can design something which is elegant. A good engineer designs systems to be efficient. A great engineer designs them to be effective.&lt;p&gt;This statement reminded me of the popular quote on teacher, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”</text></comment>