Paul Kedrosky picks up an interesting challenge:

Physicist Richard Feynman once said that if all knowledge about physics was about to expire the one sentence he would tell the future is that “Everything is made of atoms”. What one sentence would you tell the future about your own area, whether it’s entrepreneurship, hedge funds, venture capital, or something else?

Examples: An economist might say that “People respond to incentives”. I had an engineering professor years ago who said all of that field could be reduced to “F=MA and you can’t push on a rope”.

I look forward to reading the comments there (and here). For software development, I’d say “Writing comprehensive unit tests at the beginning will save you time in the end, even if it doesn’t seem like it.” Almost everything else in software development seems more ephemeral or situational.

Update: Rebecca Blood is inviting some interesting people to impart their knowledge to the future.