Understanding- -like civilization, happiness, music, science and a host of other great endeavors--is not a state of being, but a manner of traveling. This great road has no final destination. The journey itself is the reward.
Interpretation
Understanding is a continuous journey rather than a fixed destination, where the experiences we gain along the way are the true rewards.
In this quote, Alan Kay emphasizes that understanding and many other pursuits in life are not about achieving a final goal, but rather about the ongoing process of exploration and discovery. This perspective encourages us to value the learning and experiences we gather throughout our lives instead of fixating on a specific endpoint, as the journey itself provides the most meaningful rewards.
In practice
In a motivational speech about lifelong learning.
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.
The greatest single programming language ever designed
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.
It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.
She likes herself, yet others hates, For that which in herself she prizes; And while she laughs at them, forgets She is the thing that she despises.
There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.
I had always been feeling uncomfortable in my mind about giving advice to others and not acting upon it myself.
Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.
All who ask receive, those who seek find, and to those who knock it shall be opened. Therefore, let us knock at the beautiful garden of Scripture. It is fragrant, sweet, and blooming with various sounds of spiritual and divinely inspired birds. They sing all around our ears, capture our hearts, comfort the mourners, pacify the angry, and fill us with everlasting joy.
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