Computer science inverts the normal. In normal science, you're given a world, and your job is to find out the rules. In computer science, you give the computer the rules, and it creates the world. — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
All the companies I've worked for have this deep problem of devolving to something like the hunting and gathering cultures of 100,000 years ago. If businesses could find a way to invent 'agriculture,' we could put the world back together… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
In our society we have hard nerds and soft nerds. The hard nerds are the ones who used to have the slide rules at… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
As far as Apple goes, it was a different company every few years from the time I joined in 1984. — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
When I first prepared this particular talk... I realized that my usual approach is usually critical. That is, a lot of the things that… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
Quite a few people have to believe something is normal before it becomes normal - a sort of 'voting' situation. But once the threshold… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
Every technology really needs to be shipped with a special manual - not how to use it but why, when and for what. — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
Java and C++ make you think that the new ideas are like the old ones. Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
It's hard to change information in books, but if we have everything online, then a somewhat untrustworthy group of people controlling the thing -… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
The tree of research must be fed from time to time with the blood of bean-counters, for it is its natural manure. — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware. — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
I think the trick with knowledge is to “acquire it, and forget all except the perfume” - because it is noisy and sometimes drowns… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
