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Margaret Hamilton
1936–Present · Director of Apollo Flight Computer Software, MIT
She wrote the flight software for Apollo 11. When she insisted on adding error-handling code, NASA told her not to bother, astronauts wouldn't make mistakes. Three minutes before the lunar landing, the computer overloaded. Her "unnecessary" code saved the mission, the crew, and the entire space program. She coined the term "software engineering" when nobody took software seriously. A Grithosian does the right thing even when everyone above them says it's a waste of time.
Quoted in these Footings
VIR-III-0012“I've been blaming others for something that was partly my fault.”APX-IV-0020“I turned down an easier path because I knew it wasn't the right one.”DTH-XII-0015“I find myself thinking about the kind of person I want to have been.”VIR-II-0022“I finished the thing I committed to, long after the excitement died.”VIR-II-0023“Someone trusted me with something heavy and I never once let it slip.”VIR-III-0045“I post about my values but I don't live them when no one's looking.”CTL-IX-0067“I cut my commitments in half and somehow my life got twice as rich.”DTH-XII-0060“I put my affairs in order, not from fear, but as a final act of love.”DTH-XII-0061“I found something real to believe in and I face death differently now.”DTH-XII-0062“An old friend and I reconnected and it was like no time had passed.”VER-XIV-0055“I gave my team the credit and watched them grow three sizes overnight.”VIR-II-0055“I told myself I'd be in bed by eleven all week, and I was.”
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