black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.

Alan Kay

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
Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.
ALAN KAY

Complex Possible Simple Thing
The soft nerds are the ones who get violently ill whenever anybody mentions an integral sign.
ALAN KAY

Anybody Integral Mention Nerd One Sign Soft Violent
By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books.
ALAN KAY

Book Couple Got Hundred School Time
Every technology really needs to be shipped with a special manual – not how to use it but why, when, and for what.
ALAN KAY

Every Technology How Manual Need Ship Special Use
The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made.
ALAN KAY

Internet Man Made Most Natural Ocean Pacific People Resource Something Think
If you’re utopian, you’re never satisfied.
ALAN KAY

Country never Utopian
I realized that my usual approach is usually critical. That is, a lot of the things that I do, that most people do, are because they hate something somebody else has done, or they hate that something hasn’t been done.
ALAN KAY

Approach Done Hate Most People Realize Someone Something Usually
It’s easier to invent the future than to predict it.
ALAN KAY

Easier Future Invent Predict
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
To get the medium’s magic to work for one’s aims rather than against them is to attain literacy.
ALAN KAY

Against Aim Attain Literacy Magic Medium Rather Work
In success there’s a tendency to keep on doing what you were doing.
ALAN KAY

Do Doing Kept Success Tendency
Science requires a society because even people who are trying to be good thinkers love their own thoughts and theories.
ALAN KAY

Even Good Love Own People Require Science Society Theory Thinker Thought Try
If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be spent to make computing a part of our lives?
ALAN KAY

Growth Learn Letter Makem Live Personal Societal Spent Springboard Value
The computer is simply an instrument whose music is ideas.
ALAN KAY

Computer Idea Instrument Music Simply
Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable.
ALAN KAY

Activity Computational Computer Contact Deep Enjoy Enough Equipment Fluent Literacy Make Read Write
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
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
Artificial intelligence is what we don’t know how to do yet
ALAN KAY

Artificial Don't Know Intelligence Yet
A computer scientist is a machine for converting coffee into urine.
ALAN KAY

Coffee Computer Convert Machine Scientist Urine
Humans are communications junkies. We just can’t get enough.
ALAN KAY

Communication Enough Get Human Junkie
I fear – as far as I can tell – that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training.
ALAN KAY

Basically Far Jar Java Program Tell Undergraduate Vocational
[Computing] is just a fabulous place for that, because it’s a place where you don’t have to be a Ph.D. or anything else. It’s a place where you can still be an artisan.
ALAN KAY

Anything Artisan Computer Else Fabulous Just Place
The only way you can predict the future is to build it.
ALAN KAY

Build Future IT Only Predict Way
I don’t know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras.
ALAN KAY

Arrogance Computer Ever Know Many Measure Met Nanao People Science
So at the end of the presentation, Steve came up to me and said: Is the iPhone worth criticizing? And I said: Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you’ll rule the world.
ALAN KAY

Eight End Five Inch iPhone Presentation ule World
If the pros at Sun had had a chance to fix Java, the world would be a much more pleasant place.
ALAN KAY

Chance Fix Java More Much Place Pleasant Pros Sun World

Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Alan Kay Quotes