Any medium powerful enough to extend man’s reach is powerful enough to topple his world.
ALAN KAYAny medium powerful enough to extend man’s reach is powerful enough to topple his world.
ALAN KAYMost creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising.
ALAN KAYLisp isn’t a language, it’s a building material.
ALAN KAYIn computers, every ‘new explosion’ was set off by a software product that allowed users to program differently.
ALAN KAYScratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.
ALAN KAYI made up the term “object-oriented,” and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.
ALAN KAYIf you’re utopian, you’re never satisfied.
ALAN KAYScience requires a society because even people who are trying to be good thinkers love their own thoughts and theories.
ALAN KAYWhen I first prepared this particular talk…
ALAN KAYSo 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[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 KAYIf you’re not failing 90% of the time, then you’re probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.
ALAN KAYHumans are communications junkies. We just can’t get enough.
ALAN KAYKnowledge is silver. Outlook is gold. IQ is a lead weight.
ALAN KAYArt also has this element. Our job is to remind us that there are more contexts than the one that we’re in – the one that we think is reality.
ALAN KAYComputer 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