black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

I hired finishers because I’m a good starter and a poor finisher.

Alan Kay

The hard nerds are the ones who used to have the slide rules at their belt; now they have calculators.
ALAN KAY

Belt Calculator Hard Nerd One Rule Slide Use
Lisp isn’t a language, it’s a building material.
ALAN KAY

Buil Language Lips Material
The only way you can predict the future is to build it.
ALAN KAY

Build Future IT Only Predict Way
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
When I first prepared this particular talk…
ALAN KAY

First Particular Prepare Talk
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
Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.
ALAN KAY

Boardroom Briefcase Cavemen Hungry Just Person Scratch Surface Typical Wise
We cannot predict the future, but we can invent it.
ALAN KAY

Future Invent IT Predict
They don’t like the idea of having different points of view, so it was a battle.
ALAN KAY

Battle Different Idea Point View
It’s all about long-term, sustaining relationships.
ALAN KAY

Long Relationship Sustained Term
I hired finishers because I’m a good starter and a poor finisher.
ALAN KAY

Finisher Good Hire Poor Starter
A computer scientist is a machine for converting coffee into urine.
ALAN KAY

Coffee Computer Convert Machine Scientist Urine
Understanding- -like civilization, happiness, music, science and a host of other great endeavors–is not a state of being, but a manner of traveling.
ALAN KAY

Civilization Endeavour Host Manner Science Stae Traveling Understanding
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
Because the web has produced so much uninformed criticism. It’s kind of a Gresham’s Law-bad money drives the good money out of circulation.
ALAN KAY

Circulation Good Kind Money Out Produce Uniform
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

I hired finishers because I’m a good starter and a poor finisher.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

I hired finishers because I’m a good starter and a poor finisher.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Alan Kay Quotes