While I agree with both quotes separately, I don't think that they necessarily mean the same thing.
To me, the first (by Brooks) seems to be about grasping the domain model to understand what the system does (or can do) in general.
Wheras the second (by Torvalds) seems to be about how best to organize data in code for efficient processing. Array, hash, tree, heap, etc and their associated access time complexity. The efficiency of your solution depends on your choice of a data structure that fits the local problem.
To me, the first (by Brooks) seems to be about grasping the domain model to understand what the system does (or can do) in general.
Wheras the second (by Torvalds) seems to be about how best to organize data in code for efficient processing. Array, hash, tree, heap, etc and their associated access time complexity. The efficiency of your solution depends on your choice of a data structure that fits the local problem.