Whether the components are atoms or bits, ideas or steel girders, building something is a process of subduing wishes to possibilities … A real, constructed thing (however dented) beats a wish (however shiny) hands down; so working through the inevitable compromises, losing some of what you first thought of, is still a process of gain … But sometimes the process goes further. Some of the best bridges, programs, novels – not all the best, but some – come about because their makers have immersed themselves in the task with such concentration, such intent openness to what the task may bring, that the effort of making wishes real itself breeds new wishes. From the thick of the task, in the midst of the practical hammering, the makers see further possibilities that wouldn’t have been visible except from there, from that spot, from that degree of engagement with the task … This is what happened when Bell and Braben wrote their game … It became great because they saw the possibility of it being great while they were just trying to make it good. The process of creation itself enables more creativity. This is what happened as Bell and Braben wrote their game, eventually to be called Elite, eventually to be a landmark in the history of computer games. It grew as it went. It became great because they saw the possibility of it being great while they were just trying to make it good. ... There had never before been a game that fused simulation AND strategy AND exploration.

Two family cars pulled into Jesus College & unloaded teenage sons, desk lamps, coffee mugs, jars of Nescafé, cardboard boxes full of paperback science fiction novels and copious pairs of clean socks.

The patronizing literature students
with the glasses of Bulgarian wine in their hands who assumed that any
intelligent person must be a socialist.