An important technology first creates a problem and then solves it.
ALAN KAYTo get the medium’s magic to work for one’s aims rather than against them is to attain literacy.
More Alan Kay Quotes
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There is the desire of a consumer society to have no learning curves.
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There’s an element of surprise, and especially in science, there is often laughter that goes along with the “Aha.”
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But once the threshold is reached, then everyone demands to do whatever it is.
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In a well functioning world, tools and agents are complementary.
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The soft nerds are the ones who get violently ill whenever anybody mentions an integral sign.
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Quite a few people have to believe something is normal before it becomes normal – a sort of ‘voting’ situation.
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Basic would never have surfaced because there was always a language better than Basic for that purpose.
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That language was Joss, which predated Basic and was beautiful.
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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.
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It’s easier to invent the future than to predict it.
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When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing.
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There will be always unresolved ambiguity here.
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Understanding- -like civilization, happiness, music, science and a host of other great endeavors–is not a state of being, but a manner of traveling.
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People are willing to pay you if you’re any good at all, and you have plenty of time for screwing around.
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Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower.
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