The greatest single programming language ever designed
Interpretation
Alan Kay believes that the programming language he refers to is unparalleled in its design and capabilities.
In this quote, Alan Kay emphasizes the significance of programming languages in the evolution of technology, suggesting that there exists a programming language that stands out as the most innovative and effective in facilitating cognitive processes in computing. His statement advocates for the transformative potential of programming languages in shaping how we interact with technology and design solutions.
In practice
In a presentation on programming languages, one might cite this quote to highlight the advancements in language design.
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. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs.
Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.
By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books. I knew in the first grade that they were lying to me because I had already been exposed to other points of view. 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, so it was a battle. Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.
Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.
If you're not failing 90% of the time, then you're probably not working on sufficiently challenging problems.
Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.
A good programming language is a conceptual universe for thinking about programming.
When technological advancement can go up so exponentially, I do think there's a risk of losing sight of the fact that tech should serve humanity, not the other way around.
It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.
Connectivity enables transparency for better government, education, and health.
If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit.
My recommendation for SEO is very simple. Itβs Write Good Stuff. In my mind, Google is in the business of finding good stuff. It has thousands of the smartest people in the world, spending billions of dollars to find the good stuff. All you have to do is write the good stuff; you don't need to trick it. Let Google do its job and you do your job.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.