Basic would never have surfaced because there was always a language better than Basic for that purpose. That language was Joss, which predated Basic and was beautiful. But Basic happened to be on a GE timesharing system that was done… — Alan Kay Copy Share Image
Social thinking requires very exacting thresholds to be powerful. For example, we've had social thinking for 200,000 years, and hardly anything happened that could be considered progress over most of that time. This is because what is most pervasive about… — 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
