29 Alan Kay Quotes on Success (PROGRAMMING)

Top 10 Most Famous Alan Kay Quotes (BEST)

“Computer science inverts the normal. In normal science, you’re given a world, and your job is to find out the rules. In computer science, you give the computer the rules, and it creates the world.”
Alan Kay

The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language. — The most disastrous thing that you can ever **learn** is your first programming language.

People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.

Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. — Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the **future** is to invent it.

Technology is anything that wasn't around when you were born. — Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born.

“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

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. — 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.

Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.

If you're not failing 90% of the time, then you're probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems. — If you’re not failing 90% of the time, then you’re probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.

An important technology first creates a problem and then solves it.

2 Inspirational Alan Kay Quotes About the Future

“The future is not laid out on a track. It is something that we can decide, and to the extent that we do not violate any known laws of the universe, we can probably make it work the way that we want to.”
Alan Kay

It's easier to invent the future than to predict it. — It’s easier to invent the **future** than to predict it.

4 Alan Kay Quotes on Programming and Software

“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

I fear - as far as I can tell - that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training. — I fear – as far as I can tell – that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training.

I made up the term "object-oriented," and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind. — I made up the term “object-oriented,” and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.

Java and C++ make you think that the new ideas are like the old ones. Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS.

4 Alan Kay Quotes on Computer Science

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. — 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.

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

Science requires a society because even people who are trying to be good thinkers love their own thoughts and theories - much of the debugging has to be done by others. — Science requires a society because even people who are trying to be good thinkers love their own thoughts and theories – much of the debugging has to be done by others.

Having an intelligent secretary does not get rid of the need to read, write, and draw, etc. In a well functioning world, tools and agents are complementary.

3 Alan Kay Quotes About Change

Change is easy, except for the changed part. — **Change** is easy, except for the changed part.

A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points. — A **change** in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.

In the old days, you would chastise people for reinventing the wheel. Now we beg, 'Oh, please, please reinvent the wheel.' — In the old days, you would chastise people for reinventing the wheel. Now we beg, ‘Oh, please, please reinvent the wheel.’

4 Alan Kay Quotes on Creativity (APPLE)

“Most creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising. There’s an element of surprise, and especially in science, there is often laughter that goes along with the ‘Aha.’ Art 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 Kay

Steve was perfectly aware of the Dynabook. That was one of the reasons he wanted me to come to Apple. — **Steve** was perfectly aware of the Dynabook. That was one of the reasons he wanted me to come to Apple.

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

Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories. — Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.

2 Alan Kay Quotes on School and Education

“Most people have managed to get by without being educated… because, in order to make education more user-friendly, they managed to forget about the changes in people’s brains that are supposed to happen.”
Alan Kay