Source: http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/upc/15.txt

The Hackers of Elder Days cultivated mastery: 
   the subtle essence 
      depthful and penetrating
      profound and hairy

Hence we understand them not.

Instead we may know their virtues: 

They were cautious as the elephant,
   like one making global changes to a codebase.

They were vigilant as the monkey, yes,
   like a rogue(6) player fearing danger from all quarters.

They were courteous, 
   like ITS turists.

They were egoless, yes,
   like ice which will imminently crack.

They were solid, yes, like GNU utilities.

They were open, yes, like a newly formatted disk.

They were opaque, like spaghetti code.

Who can make spaghetti code straightforward?
  It gradually clarifies itself.

Who can make dead code useful again?
  It gradually rejuvinates itself.

Holding to the Unix Way,
  one longs not for features more and more.

Truly, therefore, one is compact,
  and can remain stable
  without gratuitous changes.