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Lisp isn’t a language, it’s a building material.

Alan Kay

When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free?
ALAN KAY

Error Free Last Scale Technology Time
The future is not laid out on a track. It is something that we can decide.
ALAN KAY

Decide Future Laid Out Something Track
This tends to result in very dumbed-down products that are easy to get started on, but are generally worthless and/or debilitating.
ALAN KAY

Debilitation Dumb Easy General Product Result Tend Worthless
An important technology first creates a problem and then solves it.
ALAN KAY

Create First Important Problem Solve Technology
Bad criticism drives good criticism out of circulation. You just can’t criticize anything.
ALAN KAY

Anything Bad Criticism Good Out
They don’t like the idea of having different points of view, so it was a battle.
ALAN KAY

Battle Different Idea Point View
By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books.
ALAN KAY

Book Couple Got Hundred School Time
A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points. Perspective is worth 80 IQ points. Point of view is worth 80 IQ points
ALAN KAY

Change Eighty Perspective Point Worth
Having an intelligent secretary does not get rid of the need to read, write, and draw, etc.
ALAN KAY

Draw Have Intelligent Need Read Rid Secretary Write
Television should be the last mass communication medium to be naively designed and put into the world without a surgeon-general’s warning.
ALAN KAY

Amass Communication General Last Medium Naive Surgeon Television Warning World
But Basic happened to be on a GE timesharing system that was done by Dartmouth, and when GE decided to franchise that, it started spreading Basic around just because it was there, not because it had any intrinsic merits whatsoever.
ALAN KAY

Around Basic Decide Done Franchise Happen Spread Timeshare
If you’re not failing 90% of the time, then you’re probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.
ALAN KAY

Challenge Fall Probably Problem Sufficient Time Work
The idea that hardware on networks should just be caches for movable process descriptions and the processes themselves goes back quite a ways.
ALAN KAY

Back Catch Description Hardware Idea Movable Network Process Quiet
When I first prepared this particular talk…
ALAN KAY

First Particular Prepare Talk
Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term.
ALAN KAY

Another Example Fill Perl Tiny
I made up the term “object-oriented,” and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.
ALAN KAY

Language Made Mind Object Orient Tell Term

Lisp isn’t a language, it’s a building material.

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Lisp isn’t a language, it’s a building material.

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