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Bad criticism drives good criticism out of circulation. You just can’t criticize anything.

Alan Kay

As far as Apple goes, it was a different company every few years from the time I joined in 1984.
ALAN KAY

Apple As Company Different Every Few Go Join
A computer scientist is a machine for converting coffee into urine.
ALAN KAY

Coffee Computer Convert Machine Scientist Urine
Change is easy, except for the changed part.
ALAN KAY

Change Easy Except Part
There will be always unresolved ambiguity here.
ALAN KAY

Always Ambiguity
The protean nature of the computer is such that it can act like a machine or like a language to be shaped and exploited.
ALAN KAY

Act Computer Exploit Language Like Machine Nature Protean Shape Such
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
It’s easier to invent the future than to predict it.
ALAN KAY

Easier Future Invent Predict
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
Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS.
ALAN KAY

Compute Distress Dos Hit Java Microsoft Most Since Thing
That language was Joss, which predated Basic and was beautiful.
ALAN KAY

Basic Beautiful Joss Language Predate
I think the trick with knowledge is to “acquire it, and forget all except the perfume” – because it is noisy and sometimes drowns out one’s own “brain voices”.
ALAN KAY

Acquire All Except Forget Knowledge Perfume Think Trick
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
So I had read maybe 150 books by the time I hit 1st grade. And I already knew that the teachers were lying to me.
ALAN KAY

Already Amybe Book Grade Lie Read Teacher Time
It is not a tool, although it can act like many tools. It is the first metamedium, and as such it has degrees of freedom for representation and expression never before encountered and as yet barely investigated.
ALAN KAY

Bare Degree Encourage First Freedom Investigation Metamedium Representation Tool
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
The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language.
ALAN KAY

Disastrous Ever First Language Learn Most Program Thing

Bad criticism drives good criticism out of circulation. You just can’t criticize anything.

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Bad criticism drives good criticism out of circulation. You just can’t criticize anything.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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