Alan Kay

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Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Alan Kay (American computer scientist) . Talk at Creative Think seminar, 20 July 1982.

A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.
Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.
Point of view is worth 80 IQ points

Kay uses the example of solving problems using polar coordinates rather than Cartesian coordinates. Each works better in certain circumstances.

The computer revolution hasn't happened yet. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

1997.

Alan Kay has in insightful way of defining technology.
Technology is things invented after we were born. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

The question of what is and what is not technology depends on your point of view. This is the essence of information.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Should the computer program the kid, or should the kid program the computer? Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

I had the fortune or misfortune to learn how to read fluently starting at the age of three. 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 (American computer scientist)

Some things taught in school turn out to not be correct.

The music is not in the piano, putting pianos in a class room won't create good music. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Smalltalk is an object-oriented language developed by Alan Kay (and others) at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.

Alan Kay wanted to make a computer so easy to use, a child could use it. Then maybe adults could use a computer. Steve Jobs saw what Alan Kay was doing and hired him away from Xerox to create the MacIntosh computer, introduced in 1984.

More: Alan Kay and Smalltalk

Alan Kay (American computer scientist) was the originator of object-oriented, having developed the Smalltalk system in 1971, since "Children should program in smalltalk".

I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

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. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

There is the desire of a consumer society to have no learning curves. 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 (American computer scientist)

School is basically about one point of view - the one the teacher has or the textbooks have. They don't like the idea of having different points of view,... Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

I fear - as far as I can tell - that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

That is, many computer science programs are coding camps but often without teachers who really understand coding and sometimes without teachers who understand computer science.

Change is easy, except for the changed part. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

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 (American computer scientist)

The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution hasn't started yet. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)

Like learning a natural language, learning a second or third language helps you better understand the first one learned.

An important technology first creates a problem and then solves it. Alan Kay (American computer scientist)